Overview
How might we design responsibility attribution so people can trust and act on AI output?
When this pattern fits
- Essential for multi-agent systems, enterprise automation, and shared collaborative environments where clear accountability across agents and humans is required for audits, incidents, and trust.
When to skip or lighten it
- Solo sandboxes where a single user is always the actor.
- Anonymous public demos where identity is intentionally absent.
- High-volume telemetry where per-event attribution UI would overwhelm (summarize instead).
States
State model coming soon
Key UX elements
Key UX elements coming soon
Anti-patterns to avoid
Commits or edits marked only as “AI” with no model or agent id.
Human users taking blame for silent agent side effects.
Attribution that disappears after merge or publish.
Ambiguous co-author tags that mix reviewer and generator.
How products use it
| Product | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Git | Co-authored-by trailers for human and tool contributors. |
| GitHub | Commit and PR attribution including Copilot-assisted changes. |
| Stripe Radar | Event logs that separate system and human decisions. |
| Kubernetes | Audit logs naming user, service account, and verb. |
Implementation
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Generate a production-ready implementation of the "Responsibility Attribution" AI interface design pattern.
Pattern Definition:Frequently asked questions
What is responsibility attribution in AI UX?
It is UI and metadata that records which person or agent produced an action, so accountability stays clear when AI and humans collaborate.
Where should attribution appear?
On diffs, activity feeds, receipts, and exported artifacts. Hover cards can show agent version and approving human.
How does it differ from an audit trail?
Attribution is the actor label on each change. An audit trail is the full chronological record. Attribution is the readable tip of that record.
Should AI be listed as author?
Yes, with agent identity and the supervising human when approval was required. Do not pretend the human typed machine output.