A six-level badge family for the AI Influence Level framework

July 31, 2026

AI Influence Level has been a text label since 2023. A line at the bottom of a post saying how much of it I wrote and how much the AI did.

Text at the bottom is fine for disclosure. It's bad for glancing. So here's a mark.

The family ​

Six badges, AIL 0 through AIL 5, one per level. Each links back to the framework.

Two zones. AIL is reversed out of a solid ink panel on the left, the way a film certificate card carries its issuing mark. The level and a five-segment rail sit in the tinted field beside it.

The rail is the part that makes it readable without a legend. Five segments, filled to the level. AIL 0 shows five empty ones, which is exactly the claim being made: no AI in it.

The colors ​

The ramp runs muted sage to dusty brick.

I wanted the progression obvious and the judgment absent. A bright green at 0 would read as a gold star, and a bright red at 5 would read as an accusation. Neither is what this measures. A 5 tells you how the thing was made, and that's all it tells you.

At real size ​

In the sidebar it sits under the tags at eighteen pixels tall, which is small enough to ignore and large enough to catch:

Using it ​

Add ail: N to a post's frontmatter and the badge appears in the sidebar:

---
title: "Some Post"
tags: ai|future
ail: 3
---

Or drop one inline anywhere with <AilBadge level="3" />.

The note at the bottom of each post stays where it's always been. The badge is the glance, the note is the explanation, and they say the same thing.

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