About
About Craft Marks: the story behind the stamps
A hallmark was never an apology. It was how a craftsman stood behind his work. Craft Marks brings that habit to work made with AI: a small, honest stamp that says what happened, in a form anyone can read in three seconds.
The binary problem
Right now the question people ask is "Did you use AI?" It has two answers and both are wrong. Yes flattens a year of your judgment into a confession. No pushes makers to hide ordinary tools. Neither tells a reader anything useful about how the work came to be.
The useful question is how. A novelist who argued with a model for six months and a person who typed one prompt have nothing in common, and a single warning label treats them the same.
Where hallmarks came from
In 1300, English silversmiths began punching small marks into their metal at the assay office. The marks said who made the piece, where it was assayed, and what standard the silver met. Seven hundred years later we still read them. They survived because they were specific, small, and honest.
A hallmark did not warn a buyer away. It let a maker be trusted. Craft Marks copies that posture exactly.
The origination test
The origination test
The line between Generating and Refining is one question: who produced the first substantive version? If AI did, it is GN, no matter how much you reworked it. If you did, it is RF.
The parts, briefly
Human-led
The maker held creative authority throughout. Authority is measured in judgment, not keystrokes.Co-created
Creative decisions were genuinely shared; AI shaped direction, not just surface.AI-generated, human-reviewed
AI made the work; a human reviewed it and stands behind publishing it.SP · Sparring
AI as thought partner. Brainstorming, pressure-testing, devil's advocate. The thinking is yours; AI sharpened it.RS · Research
AI gathered, synthesized, or analyzed source material. You directed the questions and verified the findings.GN · Generating
AI produced the first substantive version, text, image, music, or code, from your direction and materials.RF · Refining
You created the work; AI edited, critiqued, restructured, or polished it.EX · Execution
AI realized or rendered what you had fully specified: formatting, voice synthesis, translation, agentic and mechanical production work.
Marks complement human credits
A mark does not replace a credits page. Editors, engineers, translators, and collaborators still get named, the way they always have. A mark answers a different question: what part did the machine play. Keep both.
Questions
Is this legally binding?
No. Craft Marks is a voluntary disclosure convention, the way Creative Commons was before anyone adopted it. It carries weight because makers choose to use it honestly, not because a court enforces it.
Won't people lie?
Some will. Disclosure does not stop bad actors. It lets honest makers be believed. That is the whole trade, and it is the same trade the assay office made in 1300.
What about work with multiple components?
One mark per work by default. When the components differ enough to matter, a cover with a generated image and human-written text for example, disclose per component and say which mark belongs to which part.
Created by
Created by David Weigelt, Principal Chair, C12 Maryland.