UK Startup Books by People Launches 'Organic' Certification for Human-Authored Books

Books by People, a startup from the UK co-founded by Esme Dennys, has been granted permission by the UK Intellectual Property Office to use a certification mark on book covers to signify human authorship. This effort seeks to address the confusion surrounding authorship in light of increasing scandals related to AI in publishing. Authors are required to complete a declaration, and their manuscripts will be subjected to both proprietary software evaluation and manual scrutiny. Publishers must pay a membership fee along with a charge for each book; currently, five publishers have signed up, with the first certified title anticipated by the end of the year. This initiative comes in response to controversies in 2024, including a $2 million deal that was canceled and claims of AI-generated content. Notable supporters include Ted Chiang and Sam Jordison, while some critics express concerns about potential misidentifications and false positives.