When to disclose AI use

Disclosure should be proportional to the role AI played in the published product. Spell-check is not material. A summary that was rewritten by a model and lightly edited by a human is material. Most policies converge on this distinction even when they do not state it explicitly.

A working test: if the AI tool were removed from the workflow, would the published piece be meaningfully different? If yes, disclose. If you cannot tell, disclose anyway — the cost of an extra line of transparency is small.

Disclosure language should be specific. "AI tools were used in the production of this article" is not disclosure; it is a shrug. Name the task — transcription, summarisation, translation, image generation — and the editorial responsibility for the final output.