Authorship Certificate
Show how your document was written.
Diglot records your drafting activity while you work, then turns it into a signed, shareable certificate. Free to create. Publicly verifiable. Clear about what it can — and cannot — prove.
Unlimited certificates · No credit card required
Authorship Certificate
№ AC-2026-0514-1840
This certificate records how the referenced document developed inside Diglot during the period shown below.
Signature verified
Process evidence, not proof of identity or a guarantee of academic integrity.
- Free, unlimited certificate generation
- Records typing, pastes, edits, and Diglot AI assistance
- Public verification — no reviewer account required
How the certificate works
Short answer Enable recording before you begin, write in Diglot, then issue a signed public record. The certificate is free and cannot be created retroactively for activity Diglot did not capture.
- 1
Turn on authorship
Enable Authorship before you start. Diglot records the document’s edit activity while you work — typing, revisions, pastes, and accepted AI assistance.
- 2
Write the document
Draft and revise in the Diglot editor. The activity becomes a tamper-evident event chain without saving a copy of every keystroke.
- 3
Issue and share
Generate a signed certificate for free and share its public URL or PDF. A reviewer can check the signature and the recorded writing summary without creating an account.
A record a reviewer can actually inspect
Short answer A certificate includes the recorded writing summary, period and word count, capture surface, and an ed25519 signature. The signed payload is explicit about coverage and limits.
Writing activity summary
A readable summary of the recorded drafting pattern, including typing, revision, paste, and AI-assistance signals.
Period & word count
When the writing started, when it ended, and how many words appeared in the final document. The cert covers a specific time window.
Recorded surface
The certificate states where activity was captured. Today, full authorship recording is available in the Diglot web editor.
Signature & public key URL
An ed25519 signature over the entire payload, plus a pointer to /.well-known/diglot-pubkey.json on diglot.ai where the public key is published. Verifiers fetch the key and check the signature in the browser.
How verification works (third-party view)
Short answer Whoever receives a Diglot certificate opens the URL in any browser — no install, no login, no Diglot account — and sees the verdict tier, period, word count, and edit-pattern summary on one screen, plus a signature check that reads VERIFIED, INVALID, or OFFLINE.
When you receive a Diglot certificate URL — typically a link like https://app.diglot.ai/verify/<id> — here's what happens in your browser.
Open the URL
Same as any web page — no install, no login, no Diglot account.
See the verdict
Verdict tier, period, word count, and edit-pattern summary on one screen.
Signature check
Runs inline in your browser — verdict reads VERIFIED, INVALID, or OFFLINE.
Download PDF
Static copy if a reviewer wants the certificate attached to a record.
Read disclaimer
The certificate explains exactly what the verdict does — and does not — claim.
A better conversation than “AI or not?”
Short answer AI detectors infer from the finished text. An Authorship Certificate documents the process captured before submission. It does not overturn a detector score; it adds inspectable evidence to a decision that should never rest on one score alone.
| Evidence | What it found | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Research · Stanford 2023 | Seven commercial AI detectors misclassified 61.22% of ESL essays as AI-generated in a 2023 Stanford study (Liang et al., Patterns, Cell Press), while native-speaker essays were flagged at roughly 5% — a 12× false-positive gap. | Liang et al., Patterns (Cell Press), 2023 |
| University policy · 2023–2026 | The University of Waterloo discontinued Turnitin's AI detector in September 2025, citing «unreliability and bias toward students whose first language is not English». Vanderbilt followed; MIT published guidance titled «AI Detectors Don't Work. Here's What to Do Instead». | University of Waterloo, September 2025 |
| Court precedent · Jan 2026 | The New York Supreme Court in Matter of Newby v. Adelphi University ordered an AI-cheating record expunged in January 2026, calling the university's decision «without valid basis and devoid of reason». A federal complaint against Palo Alto USD (docket 5:25-cv-04202, N.D. Cal.) over a Turnitin flag on a high-school essay is now in discovery. | New York Supreme Court, January 2026 |
| Vendor admission · Feb 2026 | Turnitin's own documentation warns of a ±15-percentage-point uncertainty band and states the AI indicator «should not be the sole basis for punitive action». In February 2026 the company publicly pivoted «from detection to transparency». | Turnitin's own documentation and February 2026 public pivot |
Deep dive with full citations: AI Detection Lawsuits 2026 — What ESL Writers Need to Know
Last updated
When you need a certificate
Short answer Use a certificate when the history of a document may matter — coursework, admission essays, journal revisions, and professional writing samples.
Admission essays
Share a writing-process record alongside a high-stakes personal statement or application essay.
Journal submissions
Attach a signed account of the revision process when an editor asks how a manuscript developed.
Portfolio pieces
Give a hiring manager more context about the creation of a writing sample or case study.
Coursework
Keep process evidence ready for assignments where authorship or AI use may later be discussed.
Authorship Certificate FAQ
Short answer Certificates are free and unlimited. Reviewers do not need an account. Recording must be enabled before writing begins, and a certificate is process evidence — not proof of identity.
What is a Diglot Authorship Certificate?
It is a cryptographically signed record of the writing activity captured while a document was created in Diglot. It summarizes the recording period, word count, writing surface, and activity pattern, and gives you a public URL that anyone can verify without a Diglot account.
I am worried Turnitin will flag my essay as AI. What does a certificate do about it?
Not much on the score itself: the certificate does not change what a detector reports, and it does not guarantee that a reviewer will accept it. What it gives you is a record of how the document was written. Diglot logs edits, pastes, and accepted AI assistance as an append-only chain while you write in its editor, so the record exists before anyone asks a question. If a reviewer raises a flag, you can send the verification URL: they open it in any browser, with no login and no Diglot account, and see the writing period, the word count, the activity summary, and a cryptographic signature check, to read alongside the detector result and the work itself. The record covers only what happens inside the Diglot editor.
Can an Authorship Certificate prevent a false-positive AI flag?
No. It does not control a detector or guarantee that a reviewer will accept it. It gives you process evidence recorded before a question arises, so the discussion can include how the document developed instead of relying only on a probability score.
Do I need a Diglot account to verify someone else's certificate?
No. Verification is fully public. You open the certificate URL, see the payload and the signature status, and read the verdict — all without logging in. This is the core design property of the certificate: third parties shouldn't have to trust Diglot to act as a notary; they verify cryptographically.
What does the verdict tier actually mean?
Green, Yellow, and Red summarize documented activity patterns such as paste size, AI-assist density, and edit cadence. A tier is not proof of identity, guilt, innocence, or academic integrity; reviewers should read it together with the detailed activity summary and the work itself.
What data does the edit chain record?
The chain stores edit operations (insert / delete / paste / accept-AI-suggestion) with timestamps and approximate sizes. It does NOT store the full text of every keystroke. The certificate aggregates the chain into a summary — the underlying chain stays inside Diglot unless you choose to expose it. See our Privacy Policy for the full retention rules.
Can someone forge a certificate to look like mine?
No. The ed25519 signature is over the entire certificate payload, signed with a private key that never leaves Diglot. The verification page fetches the public key from diglot.ai/.well-known/diglot-pubkey.json. A forged certificate would either fail the signature check (status: INVALID) or point at an attacker-controlled key URL (the verify page falls back to the canonical public-key location and would still mark it INVALID).
Does the certificate prove I wrote the document myself?
No. It is a signed record of events observed inside the Diglot editor: the document was edited there during a specific time window, with a specific pattern of typing, pasting, and AI assistance, on specific surfaces. It cannot see activity outside the editor (another tool, dictation, or help from another person), and it is not a warranty of authorship or originality or a guarantee that a school, journal, or employer will accept it. We say this in plain language on the certificate itself. Treat it as process evidence to read alongside the work.
I do not have a certificate URL — how do I get one?
Create a free Diglot account, write in Diglot, then request a certificate from the editor. Every plan includes unlimited ed25519-signed certificate generation at no extra charge whenever the document’s recorded history meets the certificate criteria; recording cannot be added retroactively to work completed elsewhere.
Latest research and case studies
Short answer The evidence base is public and named: the Stanford study on detector bias, the January 2026 New York ruling calling a university decision «devoid of reason», and the universities that disabled Turnitin AI detection. Every link below is verified-source coverage of detector bias, court rulings, and practical guidance for non-native English writers.
- Litigation update · May 2026 AI Detection Lawsuits 2026: What ESL Writers Need to Know A federal complaint in California, a New York state ruling calling a university decision «devoid of reason», and prestigious universities quietly disabling Turnitin AI detection — the verified state of play.
- Research · Detector bias Why AI Detectors Misread Non-Native English The Stanford study showing seven commercial detectors flag 61% of ESL essays as AI even when fully human-written — and a four-step guide for writers who are flagged in error.
- Hub · If it already happened Flagged as AI? Start here The complete playbook: five steps to respond, the research compendium to cite in an appeal, per-detector guides — and how a record kept while you write fits into that conversation.
- The science · Stylometry Your writing fingerprint: how authorship attribution works From the Federalist Papers to forensic linguistics: why style identifies authors, why detectors are crude population-level stylometry — and how a process record differs from style-based guessing.
- Comparison · DIY vs signed record Draftback and stronger alternatives for proving authorship What Google Docs replay tools do well, where they fall short as evidence, and what a cryptographically signed, append-only writing record adds.
- Practice · Before anyone asks The authorship checklist What to keep, and from when, so the record exists before anyone asks for it — the habits that make a Certificate worth issuing.
- Browse all Authorship Certificate research category → Every article on detector bias, court precedent, university policy, and cryptographic authorship — updated as the litigation landscape develops.
Make the process part of the document
Every plan includes full certificate generation and a public verification URL at no extra charge — issue as many certificates as you need for eligible documents.
Unlimited certificates · No credit card required