The short version
The creative work you sell on EditorFlows must be made by you. You can use ordinary editing and design software, including its automated features. You can't use generative AI to create the content of what you deliver: no prompted images or video, no synthetic voices or music, no tools that make the creative decisions for you.
What the policy covers
The policy applies to every deliverable sold through EditorFlows (edits, animations, thumbnails, graphics, color grades, titles and anything else a client pays for) and to every piece of work shown in your portfolio.
It covers the creative content of the work. It doesn't cover your private admin, like using a tool to tidy an invoice or translate a message to a client.
Not allowed
Using generative AI to create or substantially change the creative content of a deliverable, for example:
- Images, illustrations, backgrounds, faces or thumbnails generated from a text or image prompt.
- Video clips, b-roll, animation or motion generated from a prompt.
- AI-generated voiceovers, cloned voices, and AI-generated music or sound effects.
- Generative fill, generative expand or AI “replace” used to invent new content in an image or frame.
- Tools that make the edit for you: automatically choosing, cutting and assembling footage into a finished sequence, or producing a design from a prompt that you then lightly adjust.
- AI-written scripts, titles or on-screen copy presented as part of your creative work.
- Passing off generated work as your own in your portfolio.
This applies even if a client asks for it. Clients who want generated content should look elsewhere.
Allowed
Software has automated parts of editing and design for decades. These are fine because you still make the creative decisions and the content comes from you or the client:
- Color correction tools, scopes, LUTs you're licensed to use, and auto white balance or exposure.
- Stabilization, noise reduction, lens correction and frame-rate conversion.
- Audio clean-up: de-noise, de-reverb, leveling and loudness normalization.
- Speech-to-text transcription for captions, as long as you review and correct the result.
- Masking, rotoscoping, object selection and background removal applied to the client's own footage or images.
- Traditional retouching tools such as healing, cloning and content-aware fill for removing small blemishes or objects.
- Auto-reframing a shot you've chosen, scene-cut detection and syncing audio to video.
- Templates, presets, plug-ins, stock footage, stock photos, music and fonts you're licensed to use.
Allowed if you disclose it
Some tools fix technical problems by generating pixels or audio, without creating new creative content. They're allowed when applied to the client's material for a technical fix, and you tell the client in your delivery notes:
- AI upscaling of low-resolution footage or images the client supplied.
- AI frame interpolation for slow motion or frame-rate changes.
- AI voice enhancement that restores a poor recording of the real speaker, without changing what they say.
When you're not sure
Ask two questions about any tool or step:
- Who made the creative decision? If it was you, that's fine. If a model decided what to show, cut, write or say, it isn't.
- Where did the content come from? If it came from you, the client or licensed assets, that's fine. If a model generated it, it isn't.
If you're still unsure, don't use the tool for EditorFlows work, or ask us first.
Material the client supplies
If a client sends you material they made with AI, such as a logo or a voice track, editing it into the project doesn't break this policy. Your own contribution still has to be human-made. Clients shouldn't ask freelancers to generate content for them.
What freelancers agree to
When you apply, and every time you deliver work, you agree to:
- Follow this policy for every deliverable and every portfolio piece.
- Keep your working files (project files, layered design files, drafts) for at least 90 days after delivery.
- Share those working files with EditorFlows if we ask while looking into a report.
- Tell clients about any tool from the “disclose it” list that you used.
How we enforce it
A person on our team reviews every freelancer application, including the portfolio, before the profile goes public. We may also review listings and portfolios after approval.
If we believe the policy has been broken, we may ask for working files, hide listings, and suspend or remove the account. Serious or repeated breaches lead to removal. We look at the evidence and give freelancers a chance to respond before permanent removal.
We don't use automated “AI detectors”. They are not reliable enough to judge someone's work, and they wrongly flag human work.
What we don't claim
We review applications and act on problems, but we can't watch every freelancer work or verify every file. The Human-Made Policy is a commitment each freelancer makes, backed by review and enforcement. It is not a guarantee that no AI was used in any piece of work.
Changes to this policy
As tools change, this policy will too. Each version has a date, and freelancers record which version they accepted. We'll tell freelancers about meaningful changes before they take effect.
Questions? Read about joining as a freelancer.