paulwalk2d ago

Experimenting with `human.json` - a protocol to declare your allegiance to the human race ;-)

https://www.paulwalk.net/2026/experimenting-with-human.json/

(hat tip to @cogdog )

Experimenting with `human.json`

Paul Walk's Website
Show threadherbert1d ago
@paulwalk @cogdog I had looked into this too but wondered what’s preventing AI agents from using the human.json protocol for web pages they create? Probably I’m missing something.
Show threadMike Taylor 🦕
@hvdsomp @paulwalk @cogdog And we know they will: the contempt with which they've treated robots.txt leaves no room for uncertainty on this point.
Mar 23 at 10:55amWeb
Show threadpaulwalk1d ago

@mike @hvdsomp @cogdog Yes - agreed that they will try to do this. And, moreover, people will *claim* their website is written by their (human) self, when they actually use some LLM to "draft" it.

But I think this experiment is about establishing "trust" relationships between websites. Maybe closer in spirit to the "blog roll" idea - semi-automated.

Again - I'm not at all sure this is viable - but I've become very interested in how we can identify human-generated content in The Age of Slop.

Show threadMike Taylor 🦕1d ago
@paulwalk @hvdsomp @cogdog It's certainly an important problem to solve. Maybe this flawed candidate solution will turn out to be the best we can do.
Show threadherbert1d ago
@paulwalk @mike @cogdog I see the value of human.json in its curatorial aspect. In that sense it’s similar to Wander (https://codeberg.org/susam/wander#readme) and Kagi Small Web (https://github.com/kagisearch/smallweb). I am not so sure about its value to distinguish between human and AI created sites.
wander

A tiny, decentralised tool you can host with just two files to explore the small web

Codeberg.org
Show threadAlan is @cogdog 🇨🇦1d ago

@hvdsomp @paulwalk @mike thanks nudge, I want to set up wander too.

As far as making the human / Ai determination I place no bets on technological approach, for me it’s gonna be on eye of the beholder.