Using AI in Dubai? Some employees and entities must now declare it

Dubai: It is now mandatory for all Dubai government entities or those working with the Dubai government to declare the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted content by using the Human-Machine Collaboration Icon Classification System that was launched on Wednesday.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation approved the launch of the global classification system that defines the role of humans and machines in the research, production, and publication of creative, scientific, academic, and intellectual content.

According to the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) that developed the HMC classification system, it is mandatory for all Dubai Government entities or those working with the Dubai Government. The icons in the first such global system are “opt-in and voluntary,” for others.

“They [the icons] are meant to encourage honest self-assessment and transparency,” the Foundation said.

“Anyone involved in creating content, including researchers, writers, designers, or consultants, can choose to use them,” said DFF.

The Human-Machine Collaboration (HMC) Icons are the world’s first standardised visual icons to disclose the level of human versus machine involvement in creating content and research.

‘Machine’ refers to digital technologies such as algorithms, automation tools, generative AI and robots and any system that contributes to the research or content production process.

The system includes five primary icons indicating:

All Human: no machine involvement

Human‑led: human-written, machine-checked or enhanced

Machine‑assisted: iterative co‑creation

Machine‑led: machine-generated, human-reviewed

All Machine: fully machine‑generated, no human input

The system also has nine functional icons for stages like ideation, literature review, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, writing, translation, visuals, and design to show where HMC occurred.

Announcing the launch of the system, Sheikh Hamdan directed all Dubai Government entities to begin adopting the system in their research and knowledge-based efforts.

According to DFF, these include all creative and intellectual work produced as an output of research. This ranges from academic papers, technical and annual reports, to videos, art, educational materials and other multimedia content.

DDF has also allowed creators to use the icons for non-research content on social media, in videos, images, or any other content that involves, or could involve, AI or machine assistance.

“We invite researchers, writers, publishers, designers, and content creators around the world to adopt this new global classification system and use it responsibly and in ways that benefit people,” Sheikh Mohammed had said.

Non-government creators such as academics, consultants, agencies, writers, publishers, designers, or social-media content creators can use them as best practice and for ethical transparency.

Icons are copyrighted by Dubai Future Foundation but free to use, with no permission needed.

Users can choose one primary icon reflecting overall level of HMC (All Human, Human‑led, etc.). Then select relevant functional icons representing specific content-creation stages where machine collaboration occurred.

You can place icons visibly on the cover page, in a footer, or within a disclaimer or bibliographic note of your content.

The framework avoids strict percentages because it is hard to measure AI contributions objectively, especially with generative tools.

They enhance transparency and trust in content creation by exposing how much AI vs human input was contributed.

HMC icons provide a clear and standardised way of showing the extent to which machines were involved in the research and publication process within a specific report or publication.

They held identify the specific common research and publications functions involved (e.g., ideation, data analysis, writing, visuals).

They also support global standards as a model for ethical AI-aware content disclosure.