The Trusted Creator standard v1.0

There are two tiers. Both mean a real person made the work. The tier tells viewers how much AI was involved. An audit is measured against the rules of the tier the creator asked for, and the auditor must confirm those rules were met before a certificate can be issued.

Never allowed at either tier: AI avatars and digital doubles, including consented and licensed ones, voice clones of anyone, including the creator's own voice, synthetic dubs, face swaps, generated video presented as real, and any undisclosed synthetic media.

Helper tools that are allowed when declared

Noise reduction, loudness and EQ, captions and transcripts, subtitle translation, auto framing, scene cut detection, stabilisation, upscaling that does not invent faces, colour matching, background blur. These do not change the tier.

Stock and third party footage

Allowed if declared and licensed. It is measured for each sampled video, as a share of that video's runtime: up to 25 percent for Human Made and 40 percent for Human Led. Everything else must trace to an original file. It may never be presented as the creator's own capture.

Footage with no metadata

Phones and apps often strip metadata. The auditor looks for the original file on the device first, then asks the creator to film prompted clips on the same phone, then relies on the editing project and its media cache. A video that rests only on the last of these passes with a note and needs corroboration.

Live streams

The creator supplies the local recording and settings, not only the platform copy. The auditor watches one live stream in real time and checks that no virtual camera, face swap or voice changer is in the chain.

Evidence is ranked by how hard it is to fake. Auditors look for at least two different kinds of evidence for each check, and documents alone never pass one.

Generative AI

Any model that produces or materially changes text, images, video, voice or music, beyond fixed signal processing. A tool that only measures or filters, such as loudness, is not generative AI.

Helper tool

A tool that does not produce the creative substance of the work: captions and transcripts, noise reduction, loudness and EQ, stabilisation, colour matching, auto framing, scene cut detection, subtitle translation, and upscaling that does not invent faces. Helper tools are declared and do not change the tier.

Research

Finding and reading sources, and generating ideas or outlines. At Human Made no generative AI may be used for it. At Human Led it may help, if declared, but never writes the script.

Declared

Written in the creator's signed declaration, naming the tool, its version and what it was used for, before the auditor decides.

Labelled

Stated where the audience can see it: in the description or on screen, and in the platform's altered or synthetic content setting where the platform has one.

Original file

The first generation file written by the camera, phone or recording app. A download, screen recording or re-upload is not an original file.

Stock or third party footage

Footage the creator did not film, used under a licence. It is declared with its source, counted as a share of each video's runtime, and never shown as the creator's own.

Avatar or digital double

A generated or captured likeness of a person that stands in for them, including a licensed or consented one of the creator themselves.

Voice clone and dub

A synthetic copy of a voice, or a synthetic translation of a voice. Neither tier allows them, whether the voice is the creator's own, a guest's or anyone else's, and whether or not it is labelled.

Format

What viewers mainly see and hear: on camera, voice and screen, drawn or animated, or an avatar performer. A channel can have more than one. The ten checks are the same for every format, and four of them (C1, C3, C5, C7) are worded for the format.

Source material

The first generation creative files for what viewers see or hear: camera originals, raw screen captures, layered or scene working files, an avatar model with a tracking session, and multitrack voice or music sessions.

Animation

Moving pictures whose frames are made by a person by drawing, painting, modelling, posing, keyframing, compositing or photographing physical objects. Hand drawn and modelled frames count as original. Frames made or interpolated by a model from a prompt or a learned style do not.

Analyse, enhance, generate

The test for any tool. Analyse reads your work and returns information, such as transcripts, tracking or a mask you correct, and is allowed. Enhance processes your own work without changing what it shows, such as denoise or upscaling. It is allowed at Human Led if declared, and at Human Made only in its classical, non AI form. Generate creates new pixels, frames, motion, voice, music or text, and is not allowed for anything the audience sees or hears except where Human Led allows it.

Performed avatar

A character made by a person and driven in real time by a verified performer's own movement and voice. A generated or autonomous persona, or a voice changed by a model, is not eligible at either tier.

Contributor

Anyone who makes part of what viewers see or hear, such as an editor, animator, writer or voice actor. Contributors are named in the declaration. A voice actor is checked for consent and a dated raw recording.

Presenter

The real person who appears or is heard as themselves in the work and makes it. A certificate covers one presenter.

Some uses fall between the rules. The auditor decides case by case, writes the ruling down, and the second reviewer must approve it before a certificate is issued. The same line applies to both tiers unless a tier rule says otherwise.

• Generative fill or object removal on a single frame
• AI de-ageing or heavy beauty filters
• Voice enhancement that changes how a voice sounds
• AI footage inside a clearly fictional or animated segment
• AI assisted inbetweening or colouring of a person's own keyframes and line art
• AI written product descriptions or sponsor text
• A tool that mixes helper and generative features, such as an editor with text based editing

• The audit period is a fixed 90 days. It ends 14 days before we accept the application.
• The auditor takes an inventory of every video published in the period at the start.
• A random draw chooses the sample, and the seed is recorded. The creator never chooses and cannot swap a video.
• The sample is between 5 and 12 videos depending on channel size. A channel with fewer than 5 videos is sampled in full, with a minimum of 3.
• The auditor adds one extra video wherever something looks out of pattern.
• The creator has 10 business days to supply the evidence for each request (15 for a re-test). Files up to 200 MB can be uploaded. Larger material, such as raw footage, is sent as a share link. The auditor downloads it and computes its SHA-256 themselves, and the creator keeps the original until the certificate ends.

• One critical finding, or major findings on two or more sampled videos, means a certificate is not issued. So does a result of not met on identity, channel control, live presence or real voice and face.
• A certificate with notes can carry up to three minor findings. If the Human Made rules are not met but the Human Led rules are, the auditor can offer Human Led. The creator is told the reason, and accepts by signing the declaration again. The history of any change of tier is kept.
• If the only gaps are major findings on one video, or minor findings, the creator has 15 business days to supply more evidence and is re-tested on a new random sample. This can happen once.
• Any refusal is reviewed by a second auditor who did not work on the file.
• The creator sees the findings first and has 7 days to reply before a decision is made.
• Failed audits are never published.

• A certificate is valid for 12 months from issue and cites the audit period it is based on.
• A spot check of two new videos happens around month 6.
• The creator must report changes of channel owner, new AI tools that affect the tier, and platform strikes for deceptive content within 14 days.
• If a Human Made creator starts using AI in a way only Human Led allows, the certificate can be moved down to Human Led. It is signed again and the change is shown on the public record. Moving up needs a new audit.
• A certificate is removed for undisclosed AI use, a false declaration, an unreported change of owner, or a failed spot check.
• Removals are listed in the registry with a short reason code, never with free text.
• A creator can appeal a refusal, a suspension or a removal within 20 business days, in two stages. The second stage includes outside professionals. See the appeals procedure.

A certificate says the evidence reviewed supports the claimed tier for a stated audit period, at a limited level of assurance. It does not say that no AI was used outside the sample, or after the period. We never describe a creator as guaranteed free of AI.

Changes to the standard are announced before they take effect, and every certificate names the version it was audited against.