Provenance Graphs

What it is:

A tamper-evident, machine-verifiable record of authorship and creative lineage. It shows who created what, when, and from what inputs or sources, similar to a “source tree” or “creative chain of custody.”

What it does:

• Tracks authorship across solo and collaborative works.
• Records the use of third-party assets, prompts, or data (e.g., AI tools, reference photos, licensed beats).
• Maintains version control and creative forks over time.

Example:

You are a comic book artist registers a panel using AI-assisted inking and a scanned sketch. The graph links the original hand drawing, AI tool settings, and the final panel, providing proof of originality and creative process for legal, licensing, or AI opt-out purposes.