Content editing software via automatic and auditable authorship attribution

A system comprising:

• a version control system communicatively coupled over a network to an artificial author system and a plurality of user devices,
• wherein the version control system is configured to:
• manage a content repository storing source code, wherein the managing includes:
• track changes to the source code;
• and
• provide functionality for tracking artificial authorship of contributions to the source code;
• receive a first commit comprising a first edit to the source code, wherein the first commit is associated with an account of a first user making the first commit, wherein the first edit has artificial or human provenance unknown to the version control system;
• attribute the first edit of the first commit as having been authored by the account of the first user making the first commit regardless of the actual provenance of the edit, wherein the attribution of authorship lacks any explicit indication of whether an actual source that authored the first edit is human or artificial;
• permit merging of the first commit;
• receive a second commit comprising a second edit to the source code, wherein the second edit has known artificial provenance and is based on a human-authored agenda for an artificial author, wherein the second commit is associated with one or more artificial authorship tokens indicating that the second edit was authored by an artificial author of the artificial author system rather than a human author;
• apply an agenda authorship token to the agenda followed by the artificial author to produce the second edit, the agenda authorship token providing an indication of the author of the artificial author's actions in creating the second edit;
• restrict merging the second commit with a branch of the source code responsive to the second commit being associated with the one or more artificial authorship tokens;
• receive, from a second user, an attestation that the second user personally reviewed the second edit;
• responsive to receiving the attestation:
• permit merging the second commit;
• and
• associate the attestation with an attestation token indicating that the second user personally reviewed the artificial content of the second commit
• provide, by the version control system, a first user interface associated with the first commit and showing the first commit as having been authored by the account of the user making the first commit, wherein the first user interface lacks an explicit indication that the actual source of the edit is human or artificial;
• provide, by the version control system, a second user interface associated with the second commit and indicating:
• the agenda authorship token indicating the author of the artificial author's actions in creating the second edit;
• the one or more artificial authorship tokens indicating that the second edit was authored by the artificial author;
• and
• the attestation token indicating that the second user personally reviewed the artificial content of the second commit.

A method comprising:

• at a version control system communicatively coupled over a network to an artificial author system and a plurality of user devices, wherein each respective user device of the user devices has an integrated development environment for editing source code:
• managing a content repository storing source code, wherein the managing includes:
• tracking changes to the source code;
• and
• providing functionality for tracking artificial authorship of contributions to source code;
• receiving a first commit comprising a first edit to the source code, the first edit having unknown artificial or human provenance;
• attributing the first edit of the first commit as having been authored by an account of a first user making the first commit regardless of the actual provenance of the edit such that the attribution lacks any explicit indication of whether an actual source that authored the first edit is human or artificial;
• permitting merging of the first commit;
• exposing an application programming interface;
• determining that, although the artificial agent is accessing the application programming interface, the artificial agent is doing so on behalf of the author of the artificial author's actions, wherein the determining that the artificial intelligence is accessing the application programming interface on behalf of the author of the artificial agent's actions is based on an authorship token being included in an application programming interface call;
• receiving a second commit comprising a second edit to the source code, the second edit having known artificial provenance and being based on a human-authored agenda for an artificial author, wherein the second commit is associated with one or more artificial authorship tokens indicating that the second edit was authored by an artificial author of the artificial author system rather than a human author;
• applying an agenda authorship token to the agenda followed by the artificial author to produce the second edit, the agenda authorship token providing an indication of the author of the artificial author's actions in creating the second edit;
• restricting merging the second commit with a branch of the source code responsive to the second commit being associated with the one or more artificial authorship tokens, wherein restricting the merging includes maintaining the content of the second commit in an artificial intelligence branch of the source code repository until a human personally reviews the content of the second commit to be merged;
• receiving, from a second user, an attestation that the second user personally reviewed the second edit;
• responsive to receiving the attestation:
• permitting merging the second commit;
• and
• associating the attestation with an attestation token indicating that the second user personally reviewed the artificial content of the second commit
• providing, by the version control system, a first user interface associated with the first commit and showing the first commit as having been authored by the account of the user making the first commit, wherein the first user interface lacks an explicit indication that the actual source of the edit is human or artificial;
• providing, by the version control system, a second user interface associated with the second commit and showing:
• the agenda authorship token indicating the author of the artificial author's actions in creating the second edit;
• the one or more artificial authorship tokens indicating that the second edit was authored by the artificial author;
• and
• the attestation token indicating that an entity personally reviewed the artificial content of the second commit.