Last week, a group of music-industry bodies published proposals for a two-badge system to label music that’s wholly AI-generated or AI-assisted. Humans disclosing this information are key to the system… but how will *they* be verified?
Andrew Melchior has something new for that. He’s the creative technologist who has worked on projects for Massive Attack, David Bowie and Björk; his new company is called Genotone; and it’s all about ‘Proof of Human’.
This is about verifying artists, producers and rightsholders – via bank standards and national IDs – who are making declarations about a recording’s provenance and use of AI.
“The music industry has agreed the words it wants to use. The next question is whether listeners, artists and platforms can trust them,” said Melchior.
“A label is only useful if there is evidence behind it. Proof of Human creates that evidence: it shows who stands behind a declaration, what recording it applies to, when it was made, and whether it has been altered.”
This is about verified humans making signed declarations, with durable watermarks and content fingerprints providing a route back to those declarations.
“We are not building an AI detector,” stressed Melchior. “AI detectors make statistical guesses and can produce false accusations. Proof of Human verifies an accountable declaration made by a real, identified person or organisation.”
You can read more about the company’s vision here. Partnership will be key if Genotone’s technology – currently at prototype stage – is to catch on: it says it’s working with artist organisations including the MMF, FAC and AFEM for starters.
