As the rapid and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence expands across all disciplines, it has become increasingly important to be able to track AI usage and disclose it when required or when it is simply prudent to do so.
AI-Generated by ChapGPT
AI Disclosure Requirements
The US Copyright Office requires the disclosure of AI-generated content when applying for a copyright registration. Some AI-created content may be copyrightable, while other uses may not. AI assistance that results in only a “de minimis” change, such as spell and grammar checking, does not need to be disclosed. However, an increasing number of publishers, academic and scientific journals, and distribution platforms like Amazon KDP now require disclosure of AI-generated content.
Tracking System
Anyone who has ever written a lengthy work knows the value of employing a robust system to maintain and track revisions, sources, resources, changes, permissions, and related metadata throughout the lifecycle of the work. A comprehensive tracking system should include:
- Revision Tracking
- Source and Resource Management
- Change Management
- Permissions Tracking
- Centralized Notes and Revision Lists
- Collaboration and Access Control
Each of these features may involve the use of artificial intelligence. Records should clearly distinguish between AI-generated and AI-assisted content. For instance, an AI platform could be used to refine the language in a book chapter to better suit a particular audience.
When authors or editors make changes, tools like Track Changes can document the “before” and “after” versions. Tracking changes made by humans is already complex: introducing AI further complicates this process, especially since disclosure of AI-generated content is often required. For disclosure to occur, AI involvement must first be identified.
Until mainstream editors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs can natively distinguish between human and AI edits, a practical workaround could be used. Figure 1 demonstrates how an AI platform can be identified in the “label” field when comparing two documents.
Fig. 1: MS Word Track Changes Label Field
De Minimis
There are two considerations that determine if an AI use needs to be disclosed when required by most entities:
1. What is the origin of the output?
- Did the output start with human-authored content that was then refined by AI?
The copyrightability of content is most likely when is was solely created by a human. The use of traditional tools for spelling or grammar checking do not have to be disclosed.
- Was the output the result of a prompt input into a generative AI system.
The US Copyright Office (USCO) has taken a hard position that content that was produced on a generative AI system with the only human involvement being the input of prompts is not copyrightable. Recent court cases challenging this position have failed, regardless of the number of prompts that were input.
2. How much of the output was created by the generative AI system?
The USCO does not require the disclosure of a “de minimis” amount of content that was generated by a generative AI system. By definition, “de minimis” means a small, insignificant amount of something. For copyrightability purposes, that means a small amount of change to something that was first created by a human.
How can you make the judgement of how much AI content is “de minimis” or not. If the AI-generated content was created by a human, would it be copyrightable? If it would be copyrightable, it is not “de minimis” and would have to be disclosed. And content and context are important. The number of words is not necessarily a good indicator. A short poem that was generated from prompts into an AI system is not copyrightable for reason #1 above.
While Amazon KDP takes this same position of no need to disclose a “de minimis” amount of AI, other entities may require disclosure any use of AI content generation.
Recommendation
When you use AI for a work you wish to publish, make a record of each AI transaction and categorize the output as either AI-generated to be disclosed or “de minimis” that may not need to be disclosed.
If you are not yet convinced, have a look at A Poem on “The Virtues of Keeping Track of the Uses of AI in Writing a Book”.
