The No-AI Logo: Standing for Human-Generated Writing
As a publisher and writer on Medium, I’m making a visible commitment to real stories by real writers with this public-domain logo
Amid all the mistrust of artificial intelligence, people should, in theory, seek out trusted sources of news and information. Right? That’s the hope expressed in an article published by the International News Media Association. I love the idea of this “flight to quality,” but I think it’ll take more than wishful thinking to make it so.
As a writer and editor of two publications on Medium, this matters deeply to me. Medium is a place for readers and writers. Real writers. Human writers. It’s my virtual home, for several hours every day. The community is amazing. It all works because the writing is real, and the readers are real. Bots don’t stand a chance here.
While acknowledging the colossal challenge of battling against generative AI writing, I’m inspired to do something tangible to help preserve real writing and celebrate the work of real writers whose stuff I edit, and to be crystal clear about that mission. So I created a NO-AI logo that I’ve posted to the About pages of Wise & Well and Aha! Science, with a bit of explanatory wording.
This is a NO-AI publication. Our stories are written by humans with real expertise and lived experience.
The mission has not changed. I’m just shouting it out with this logo so there’s zero confusion among writers and readers. I have no illusions about starting a mass movement, but I won’t complain if that’s the outcome.
And that’s why I’m putting the logo into the public domain.
(I am a writer and an editor, not a professional logo designer. AI could probably come up with something way snazzier. But hey, you know. So there it is.)
If you run a publication or you self-publish or are otherwise involved in any sort of media that adheres to this simple principle, feel free to copy/paste the logo and use the same or similar wording. You may also include (or not) the caption line, which links back to this page for the benefit of others who might want to use the logo. Here’s a smaller version:
If you want a larger version, email me at rob dot britt at gmail.com and I’ll send it along.
Or do whatever makes sense in your corner of the interwebs to promote and protect real writing by real people.
To be clear, I am not a Luddite. I acknowledge that AI will do many things, and not all of them inherently bad. Some will be amazing. But I believe strongly that nonfiction article writing should be done by people, and articles written by AI or with the help of AI should be identified as such. But let’s not kid ourselves — such voluntary divulgences are unlikely to predominate. Hence the logo.
I fully recognize that I’m waving a flathead screwdriver at the seemingly unstoppable Goliath of AI. But it’s a battle worth fighting. I vow to do what I can, where I can, to help keep writing real. I hope you’ll join me, in whatever capacity you can, as a reader, writer or publisher, here on Medium and anywhere good writing happens.
Cheers,
Rob
PS: A few months after publishing the above story, I did a deep think on the consequences of AI-generated images (environmental, legal and cultural) and have taken a stance on those, too, one that does not prohibit their use on our publications but which discourages it, and requires identifying it as such.
