About & Methodology

The AI Transparency Ledger is a Wikipedia-style reference database that documents how companies deploy artificial intelligence across industries. We track specific practices — not vague headlines — backed by primary sources you can read yourself.

We built this because finding reliable, centralized information about corporate AI use is genuinely hard. News articles are scattered. Company announcements are promotional. Academic research lags by years. We wanted a single place where you could look up a company in under two minutes and get a clear, sourced answer.

The ledger is free, open, and will always be free. There is no paywall, no premium tier, and no advertising. Our only goal is to make corporate AI practices more visible.

Entries go through a four-stage lifecycle: submission, review, publication, and ongoing verification.

1. 1

   Submission

   Anyone can submit a report via the Report a Sighting form — no account required. Reports include a description of what was observed and an optional evidence link or screenshot.

2. 2

   Review

   A moderator reviews each submission. They verify the claim against the provided source, assess whether the source meets our evidence standards, and check for duplicates.

3. 3

   Publication

   Accepted submissions become structured entries linked to the company profile. Each practice gets a category, severity tag, and at least one verified source.

4. 4

   Ongoing Verification

   Entries are periodically re-checked. If a company reverses a practice or new contradicting information emerges, entries are updated with full edit history preserved.

Every change to every entry is recorded in the public edit history visible on each company profile page. This append-only log is the primary mechanism against astroturfing — companies or their representatives cannot quietly alter entries without leaving a trace.

Every claim in this database must be backed by at least one cited source. We categorize sources into six types, ranked roughly by reliability:

We reject claims that are based solely on speculation, rumors, or sources that cannot be independently verified. When evidence is disputed, the disputed status is shown on the entry — we do not silently remove contested information.

We do not tell you how to feel about AI. We document what companies do and let you draw your own conclusions.

We do not accept payments from companies to influence their entries. We do not allow companies to submit corrections directly — they must go through the same community process as everyone else. All edits are logged and public.

We acknowledge that some AI practices are genuinely contested — a practice tagged “Replaces Human Labor” is factual, not an accusation. The severity tags describe real-world effects, not moral judgments.

If you believe an entry is inaccurate, use the Report a Sighting form to submit contradicting evidence. We will review it and update the entry with full edit trail visibility.

The most valuable thing you can do is submit evidence. If you notice a company using AI — in a product, in an ad, in a job posting, in a legal filing — report it. It takes under 90 seconds.

The AI Transparency Ledger is a collaboration between students, Trent Maziarz @ UMass Amherst and Benjamin Brown @ CSU. We started this project after a survey of 64+ people confirmed what we already suspected: reliable, centralized information about corporate AI use simply doesn't exist yet.

This is a pre-seed, validation-phase project. We are not a company. We have no investors, no revenue, and only two employees. The codebase isn't open-source. If you want to contribute technically or editorially, reach out.