The infiltration of AI into every facet of daily life and work has required that that which is fully human and devoid of artificially enhanced technology gets its due, large and small, and marked thusly. On the personal business side, independent makers’ websites are increasingly working with AI certification sites in order to prove their “realness.” On a grander scale, YouTube recently announced that it will automatically and prominently tag all videos that make “significant” use of AI and AI-generated content. If you’re a fan of all things organic and untouched, there’s a plan to prevent you from having to sleuth out AI-generated content. Foods, supplements, and nearly everything that goes into your body is labelled, so why shouldn’t art come with the same transparency?
To that end, Los Angeles–based advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day—self-titled and trademarked The Disruption Company—is taking such labeling into the music realm, in collaboration with the label and booking team Jazz Is Dead, for its Played by Humans program of AI transparency in music. “We designed this stamp as a symbol that doesn’t reject technology, but celebrates humanity,” says Bruno Regalo, TBWA’s Worldwide Global Chief Design Officer and the originator of the digital marker, upon the program’s launch. “Inspired by advisory labels, we created something that feels trustworthy—visual assurance that there is a real person behind the music.”