TheHumanBehind: a registry so that an avatar, a voice or an agent created with AI has a named person behind it

Millions of avatars, voice clones and AI-generated images are born every day, and not one of them is tied to anybody. While everything goes well you don't notice. The problem shows up the day something goes wrong, when somebody impersonates another person, uses a character commercially without owning it, or publishes a copy that surfaces before the original: that's when you find out there's nowhere to point, because nothing anywhere records who answers for what.

Today that absence is more obvious than ever, because today Article 50 of the EU AI Act becomes applicable. The law requires you to say that something is AI-made, but it doesn't create any portal or database where you can evidence who is behind it. That gap between what you're required to declare and what you can actually prove is exactly what we've tried to fill.

What it is

TheHumanBehind is a trust registry. You register an avatar, a voice clone, an agent, an image, a video or a piece of music, and that content gets tied to you with a date and with a fingerprint that identifies it without anyone having to store the original file. That fingerprint works as proof of precedence, so if a copy turns up tomorrow you can show yours already existed, with a date you didn't set yourself.

The brand's claim sums it up better than any paragraph we could write: the right to authenticity, the proof of your worth.

And what it isn't

We're putting this up here rather than in a footnote, because it's the sort of precision that deserves to be read before registering anything.

TheHumanBehind is an independent, voluntary registry. It isn't an official EU registry, and registering doesn't by itself fulfil any legal obligation. It's simply the public place that keeps on record who answers for an avatar.

There is no badge certifying compliance with the EU AI Act: the regulation never created one. What can exist, and is what we've built, is a dated place recording that something is yours and that you're the one standing behind it.

Two tiers, and one decision about what's visible and what isn't

• Registered. Free and available now. It's a dated self-declaration along the lines of "this is mine and I take responsibility for it", which leaves you a dated record and a fingerprint of the content.
• Verified. Not open yet. An external provider checks there's a real human behind it, and at the professional tier it also checks the qualification when the matter touches health, money or the law.

The underlying decision has to do with what's visible and what isn't: the free tier is private, with no public page, no search and no API, because we think of it as your record and nobody else's. Public begins at the verified tier, and it doesn't stop half way there, since it includes a consultable profile, a search and an API open to anyone.

A directory full of unchecked entries doesn't evidence anything, because anyone can register anything. That's why we'd rather what surfaces publicly is only what somebody has bothered to verify.

Looking someone up is free, always

Checking whether somebody is verified will be free for anyone and with no time limit, and we're saying that as plainly as we say everything else. A registry only works as a reference if anyone can look it up, and that's why looking it up is free. The terms of verification will be announced before it opens.

Why we're the ones building it

Because we've spent months in this conversation from the other side. At Labs we produce AI video and characters, and on every job the same awkward question ends up coming round about whose this is and who answers if somebody uses it where they shouldn't. At Solutions we build assistants and automations, and the question is the same one in a different suit, because there too somebody has to answer for what the machine says.

A registry doesn't fix the underlying problem and we're not going to pretend it does, because it doesn't stop anyone cloning a voice or using it wherever they like. What it does is make sure that, when that happens, there's a dated place recording that the voice was yours. Nothing like that exists today, and it's the difference between having an argument and having evidence.

Where it stands

The free registry is built and running. Verification isn't open yet. It's a young project and we're describing it as one, because we'd rather you tried it knowing what's finished and what isn't, instead of running into the gaps on your own after being sold the whole thing.

You can register yours for free at thehumanbehind.com.