The viral 'Human Intelligence' logo trend is a glorious rebuttal of AI art

AI art is everywhere and it's a big concern for many professional artists and creatives, while also raising concerns about credibility and authenticity. Initiatives like Instagram's 'AI info' tags don't yet seem to be enough to address the issue. But among artists, a quiet counter movement has picked up steam and is fast on it's way to becoming a viral trend.

'Created with Human Intelligence' began as single artist's doodled logo design. It's since been replicated all over social media by creatives from different disciplines, showcasing a rich variety of artistic styles in the process.

If you're an artist and you're on Instagram, you may already have come across the Human Intelligence movement. Illustrated badges with the phrase 'Created by human intelligence' began popping up on platform a month or so ago, and it's snowballed into a trend that crosses borders and genres.

It all began when the illustrator Beth Spencer shared a logo she had designed for her own website to indicate that all the work on display was made by a human artist. In the line of popular Instagram drawing challenges, she invited other artists on the platform to draw the badge in their own style using any technique or material, other than using AI.

The hashtag she chose – #hibadge2024 – is now being used on well over 1,200 posts from countries as varied as the US, UK, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Colombia. And the logo designs range from minimalist doodles to detailed realistic illustrations, bold hand-drawn lettering and even clay sculpture.

The Created with human intelligence phenomenon feels like a timely and natural response to concerns around AI art. More 'pro-human' than 'anti-tech', it promotes the quality, originality, tradition and talent involved in all forms of human-made art while also highlighting what is something of a contradiction. 'Artificial intelligence' has become almost a marketing buzz word when in most other circumstances the term 'artificial' has negative connotations (which is perhaps why Apple is using the term 'Apple Intelligence' for its own foray into the tech).

Initiatives like Instagram's 'Made with AI' or 'AI info' tags are necessary to flag up AI-generated images, but they still need to be vastly improved. In the meantime, as AI art encroaches more and more, perhaps "made by humans" will increasingly become a badge of value and a differentiating factor to shout about.