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Aegis

Anyone can now make a video of your face saying anything.

And the person whose face it is has no say, and earns nothing from it. Both halves of that are wrong. Aegis is what I'm building to fix both: a way for AI models to check that you said yes before they generate you, and a way for you to say yes, on your own terms, when you want to.

Used without asking

Never paid

Both halves of the problem.

The other half of the key.

Here's the core of it. You register yourself once: a unique fingerprint of your face, your voice, and anything else that identifies you. You keep one half of a key. When someone asks a model to generate a person, the model checks with Aegis first. If the person is registered, the model asks for the other half of the key. If whoever is asking has it, the model goes ahead. If they don't, it refuses.

  1. You → Aegis

    Registered once. You hold one half of the key.

  2. 1Someone asking → The model

    “Make a video of this face.”

  3. 2The model → Aegis

    “Is this a registered person?”

  4. 3Aegis → The model

    “Yes. Ask for their key.”

  5. 4The model → Someone asking

    “Do you have the other half of the key?”

Then one of two endings:

  1. 5aSomeone asking → The model

    “Here it is.”

    Generated, and stamped.

  2. 5bSomeone asking → The model

    “I don't.”

    Refused.

The check, message by message.

Yours: kept by you

Only together

Given: to whoever you allow

The key, in two halves.

It only works if the models ask.

None of this matters unless the large model providers check before they generate. That's the part I'd take to them, with a working system in hand: for them, it's a way to generate real people without generating harm. For everyone else, it's the difference between a model that can make anyone and a model that can only make people who agreed.

It has to be built properly first. Then it has to be worth adopting.

Inside a model provider

A request comes in
A person is detected
Check with Aegis
Aegis
Generate
Refuse
Where the check would sit.

First protect. Then, if you want, earn.

The order matters. Before anyone licenses anything, you find out where your likeness is already being used, claim it as yours, and say what's never allowed. Only then, if you want to, do you open the parts you're willing to license.

Because the second half is real too. A voice actor, a presenter, a well-known face, or anyone who's comfortable with it can license their face or voice for commercial work, and be paid each time it's used.

Protect

  1. 1Find where you're already used
  2. 2Claim yourself
  3. 3Say what's never allowed

Opens only after the left side is done

Earn

  1. 4Open what you'll license
  2. 5Set your terms
  3. 6Get paid when it's used
Protect first. Earn only after.

Yes has conditions.

A yes is rarely total. You might allow a language app and refuse a political ad. You might let your voice read a script, but never apologize on behalf of a company. Aegis asks in plain scenarios, and turns each answer into a rule a model can check: what for, for how long, where, and in which kind of work.

  1. “Can your voice apologize on behalf of a company?”

    No

    Apologies for a company: never

  2. “Can your face appear in a language lesson?”

    Yes, for a year

    Education: allowed until next year

  3. “Can your face appear in a political ad?”

    No

    Political ads: never

Example answers, for illustration.

And no is a real answer. A refusal isn't the system failing. It's the reason the system is worth trusting.

A request
Approved
Approved with changes
Sent to you to decide
Approved at a higher price
Rejected
Never

Rejected is this request. Never is every request like it.

Swipe to see the whole drawing →

Six answers to one request.

A stamp that says you agreed.

Every approved use carries a stamp that anyone can look up: that it was authorized, what for, and until when. If you take your yes back, the stamp says so. A watermark tells you that something may be AI. The stamp tells you the person agreed.

Authorized:
a language lesson.
Until:
next June.
Status:
valid.
An illustration of a lookup.

Even after you're gone.

You can decide now what happens to your face and voice after you die: a memorial allowed, commercial use never, or nothing at all. Someone will decide it eventually. It should be you. It's the same question Narrent asks, about a different part of you.

After

Memorial: allowed

Advertising: never

Rules set now, carrying on past the mark.
The same question, for everything else: Narrent

The face is yours. So is the yes.

Aegis is a working name. The idea underneath it isn't going to change: nothing generates you without your key.

You are in the studio: Aegis

Next in the studio: Mercantile

The analyst a Shopify store never hired, before it runs another sale.

Previous: Narrent
Back to the studioBring me yours