What did you actually do?

The decision tree

1. 01

   Was any generative AI used in making this work?

   Generative AI means a model that produces new text, images, audio, video, or code. Count AI used for research, ideation, or feedback even when its output does not appear in the work. Spellcheck, autofocus, noise gates, search engines, and calculators are not generative AI.

   Yes → next question No → Level 0 · Human

2. 02

   Did AI produce new material that appears in the published work — beyond mechanically processing what you had already made?

   Correcting your grammar, faithfully transcribing or translating your words, denoising your photo, or tagging your files is mechanical processing. So is research, ideation, or feedback that leaves no model-produced material in the work. Writing a new paragraph, drawing a new image, or composing a new melody is new material.

   Yes → next question No → Level 1 · Assisted

3. 03

   Did you make most of the final form yourself — most of the words, pixels, or sound?

   Judge the published artifact, not the effort. If most of what a reader sees or hears was typed, drawn, or played by you, answer yes.

   Yes → Level 2 · Co-created No → next question

4. 04

   Is the substance yours — the knowledge, the data, the argument, the direction?

   Substance is the work-specific knowledge, evidence, argument, composition, or constraints that determine what the work says. It is yours when your original inputs materially determine the result — not merely because you wrote or refined the prompt.

   Yes → Level 3 · Directed No → next question

5. 05

   Did a human review this before publication and take responsibility for what it says?

   Review must be meaningful and appropriate to the stakes: checking the finished work, verifying material claims where necessary, and correcting problems before publication. Taking responsibility means you will defend or correct it if it is wrong.

   Yes → Level 4 · Prompted No → Level 5 · Automated