A lasting name for what you make with AI.
AIBN, short for AI Bibliographic Name, gives works created with generative AI a permanent, unique identifier — in the spirit of an ISBN, but open to everyone: any creator, any medium, no publisher required.
In development — the registry is not open yetexample
the creator's code — assigned once, when you join. (This one is permanently reserved for demos, so it can never belong to a real creator.)
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the work's own identifier — chosen by you, following simple naming rules.
What is an AIBN?
Think of it as a catalogue identifier for a creative work — the kind libraries and book trade systems use to say exactly this work, unambiguously, forever. Once assigned, an AIBN belongs to one work and is never reused or reassigned, even if the work is withdrawn.
An AIBN names the work itself, not any particular edition of it. Your story has one AIBN whether someone encounters it as an ebook, a print-on-demand paperback, or a page on your website. (Traditional ISBNs work differently: every format gets its own separate ISBN.)
Attached to every AIBN is a short public record — the work's title, when it was created, what kind of work it is, and the details its creator chose to declare: a pen name, the AI system used, a short description, references to an ISBN or DOI if it has them.
Why does this exist?
If you create with generative AI, the existing identification systems weren't built with you in mind. ISBNs are issued through the publishing industry's supply chain, and their records have no place to say which AI system was involved, or how. As AI-assisted publishing grows, platforms are tightening their rules — but there's still no neutral, open way for a work to carry its provenance with it.
AIBN isn't a rival to those systems — a work can happily have an ISBN, a DOI, and an AIBN. It's a supplementary layer: a persistent name plus a provenance record, available to anyone, and not dependent on being traditionally published, on any platform's policies, or on where you live.
How it will work
Get your creator code
Apply once. It's free at launch and open to any person or organisation, anywhere. You never need a publisher's permission or membership in anything.
Register a work
Fill in a short form: title, creation date, what kind of work it is. Optionally add a pen name, the AI system and version you used, a label like ai-assisted, languages, a short description, and references such as an ISBN or DOI.
Share your AIBN
Print it in your book, put it on your website or store page, include it in submissions. Anyone will be able to look it up and see the public record — exactly what you chose to declare.
What an AIBN is not
Being clear about this is part of the design.
- Not copyright. Registering doesn't create, prove, or transfer any rights. Copyright depends on the law where you are — for legal questions, talk to a professional.
- Not proof of authorship. Records are self-declared. We check that a submission is complete and well-formed — not whether its claims are true.
- Not a publisher, store, or distributor. We don't host, sell, or promote works.
- Not a replacement for ISBN. The two can coexist on the same work, describing different things.
- Not a seal of quality or endorsement of any work or creator.
Your privacy
- Pen names are welcome. The public record never requires a real name — a pen name or organisation name can be the public face.
- One private contact channel (an email address) is required so we can reach you, but it is never published.
- You choose what's public. Optional details — like the AI system you used — can be shown or withheld, field by field.
- Removal works. On a valid request, personal data comes out of the public record. The identifier itself is then permanently retired rather than given to anyone else — that's what makes the ones still in use trustworthy.
- The whole public database is published openly — daily snapshots anyone can verify or mirror. No lock-in.
Questions people ask
When can I get an AIBN?
Not yet — the registry is in development, and the identifier scheme is being registered through the international standards process. Watch the public project repository or write to us; the moment there's a launch date, it will be announced there.
Will it cost anything?
No fees at launch. If fees are ever introduced, they'll be published well in advance — and the core commitment stays: one identifier per work, never reused, open to anyone.
Is it only for AI works?
Yes — AIBN is for works created in whole or in part with generative AI, which is why its records can describe AI involvement. Works made entirely by hand are well served by existing systems.
Does it only cover writing?
No. Any medium: text, images, audio, video, software, datasets, or combinations. If it's a creative work made with AI, it can have an AIBN.
Does my work need to be finished or published?
No. An AIBN names a work at the moment of its creation; drafts and unpublished works can be registered. Substantially new versions get their own AIBN, optionally cross-linked to the earlier one.
Can someone register a work they didn't make?
Possibly — because we don't verify authorship, only completeness of the record. We don't act as judge in such disputes. The record is transparent about being self-declared, and it can cross-reference other identifiers (ISNI, ORCID, ISBN) that speak to identity and publication.
What happens if the registry ever shuts down?
The database is continuously escrowed with an independent agent, and the plan is committed in writing: the public data would be released in static form so existing identifiers remain verifiable. The identifiers themselves remain valid names even with no live lookup service.
Why "Bibliographic"?
It's library language for "about works and how to describe them" — and in that world it covers every medium, not just books. The full name is AI Bibliographic Name. And that last word is deliberate: unlike an ISBN, an AIBN is a name, not a number — letters and digits together, in a pattern you choose, rather than a fixed string of digits.
For the technically curious
AIBN is a Uniform Resource Names (URN) namespace — identifiers of the form
urn:aibn:<creator-code>:<work-identifier> — being
registered through the IETF/IANA process (RFC 8141). The complete
specification, the JSON metadata schema, and examples are developed in the
open:
github.com/viloocity/aibn · aibn-admin@viloocity.press
Lookups will be served by a public HTTPS API (JSON-LD by default, MARCXML and plain text available), with daily full-database exports so anyone can run a mirror.