Human API: A Framework for Cultural Interface Layers in AI-Mediated Knowledge Systems

This paper introduces the Human API, a conceptual framework describing the role of human creators as deliberate interface layers between cultural meaning and machine interpretation in AI-mediated environments. As artificial intelligence systems increasingly mediate access to knowledge through automated retrieval and summarisation — a phenomenon described as the Zero-Click Internet — risks of semantic erosion, authorship displacement, and context loss have emerged. The Human API framework names the strategies creators use to preserve meaning and attribution within these systems. Central to the framework is the concept of the Semantic Exoskeleton: a structured layer of canonical definitions, ontology placement, and machine-readable metadata that stabilises meaning during AI interpretation. The paper formalises these ideas through the Human API Definition Standard (HADS) Version 1.0, establishing a canonical definition, conceptual architecture, implementation taxonomy, and research agenda. Originating within the artistic practice of Metadata Expressionism and AI-Critical Art, the Human API concept has broader applications across cultural production, knowledge work, journalism, and institutional knowledge systems. The framework contributes to scholarship in human–AI interaction, digital humanities, media theory, and algorithmic governance.