Not By AI^® 90% Rule, Explained

A Rule of Thumb

At least 90% of the content must be created by humans. Using AI for inspiration, grammar checks, legal support, non-user-facing content, and technical enhancements is permitted.

The Not By AI 90% Rule states that at least 90% of the content must be created by humans. The rule does not apply to the use of AI for inspiration purposes, grammar and spelling checks, supporting legal documents, non-user-facing content, and technical enhancements that do not materially alter the content. This means that if you use AI for brainstorming or concepting, generate up to 10% of your content with AI, and employ AI to find typos in all content, you remain in compliance with the Not By AI 90% Rule. Additionally, AI-generated content must not determine the core meaning or creative direction, regardless of percentage. Not By AI reserves the right to determine the core meaning or creative direction of the content and the origin of the content in cases of ambiguity regarding whether it is human-created or AI-created.

The purpose of the Not By AI 90% Rule is to preserve human-created content rather than maximize permissible AI usage.

What Counts Toward the 90%

The Not By AI 90% Rule applies to all content formats, except as otherwise specified in the rule. Below are non-exhaustive examples of content types covered by the Not By AI 90% Rule:

• Text (articles, blog posts, research, books, documentation)
• Visuals (artwork, illustrations, graphics, renderings, photos, images)
• Videos (movies, documentaries, short films, live streams, interviews, educational videos)
• Audio (music, sound effects, voiceovers, podcasts, audiobooks)
• Code, when code is the main focus of your content or service

What Does Not Count Toward the 90%

Below are non-exhaustive examples of AI usage that is permitted and does not count toward the 90%:

• Inspiration / brainstorming
  AI may be used to generate ideas but the final structure and implementation must be defined and executed by humans.
• Grammatical error and spelling checks
  AI may be used to identify grammatical and spelling errors and suggest corrections but may not introduce new arguments.
• Supporting legal documents
  AI may be used to generate legal documents, such as privacy policies, but only when legal content is not the main focus of your content or service.
• Non-user-facing content
  AI may be used to generate content that is not directly user-facing, such as metadata, logs, and internal documentation.
• Technical enhancements
  AI may be used to implement technical enhancements that do not materially alter the creative content (such as background removal, image upscaling, and noise reduction).

Examples

• Luna uses ChatGPT to draft a blog post about the ten best coffee shops in Philadelphia and edits it before publishing it. Luna is not qualified to use the Not By AI Writer badge.
• Muhammad uses Photoshop to remove the background of his photo so he can place the isolated figure on a yellow background. Muhammad is qualified to use the Not By AI Designer badge.
• Masako pastes a human-created research paper into Gemini and asks it to make it "sound professional" before turning it in for a review. Masako is not qualified to use the Not By AI Researcher badge.
• Ida took a picture using her iPhone and used Nano Banana to upscale and sharpen it. Ida is qualified to use the Not By AI Photographer badge.
• Damian enters an AI prompt that reads "change eye color to magenta" into Photoshop to change the eye color of a woman in a portrait photo and this change materially alters the creative content of the photo. Damian is not qualified to use the Not By AI Photographer badge.
• Jia Jia comes up with an outline for an article and uses Claude to write the paragraphs. Jia Jia is not qualified to use the Not By AI Author badge.

Reminder: The Not By AI badges are available for a variety of content types. Only use badges on content that complies with the Not By AI 90% Rule. For example, if a music video contains human-made music and an AI-generated video, use the applicable Musician badge(s) and do not use video-related badge(s) that may falsely indicate that the video is created by humans.