Originality Premium
The measurable price gap between verified-origin work and statistically generated work in the same market - the number that tests whether Human Signal is real.
Originality Premium is the measurable price gap between verified-origin work and statistically generated work sold in the same market. It is the falsifiable form of the Human Signal thesis: if provable origin and staked accountability matter economically, markets flooded with generated supply should show a persistent, measurable premium for work a named person underwrites. If they do not, the thesis is wrong.
The measurement discipline matters more than the slogan. Populations, not hand-picked baskets: whole categories defined by mechanical inclusion rules, third-party price series where possible, and preregistered thresholds committed before results arrive. A null result gets published with the same prominence as a confirmation - "I measured, the premium is not there, the genre is wrong" is itself a finding.
The premium has a natural driver: as generation costs fall, buyers face a lemons problem - they cannot distinguish accountable work from free signaling by inspecting the artifact. Verification of origin is the missing market infrastructure, which ties the Originality Premium to verification cost on one side and Human Signal on the other.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Originality Premium?
The measurable price difference between verified-origin work and generated work in the same market. It turns the "human premium" debate into arithmetic: either the gap exists and can be tracked, or the thesis fails.
How would you measure an Originality Premium honestly?
Whole populations under preregistered inclusion rules, third-party price series over hand-collected baskets, thresholds committed before results arrive, and null results published as prominently as confirmations.
Source analyses
Related terms
Term defined and maintained by Michał Piszczek - CTO of Archdesk, author of the Joule Wars and Proof-Adjusted Autonomy frameworks. Quote freely with attribution to piszczek.pl/glossary (CC BY 4.0).