We’re releasing MEDF (Mutable Expression Description Format) —
an open document format designed for the AI era.
The core idea is simple:
AI-generated documents are not the problem.
Unverifiable documents are.
Instead of trying to detect or ban AI-generated text, MEDF focuses on
fixing the canonical meaning of a document, while allowing its expressions
(PDF, Markdown, indexes, summaries) to remain mutable.
What MEDF does
Documents are split into semantic blocks
Each block and the document as a whole are hashed and signed
Offline verification is possible (no external services required)
Indexes and views are explicitly non-canonical and regenerable
AI usage is optional metadata — not a requirement for validity
Hi HN,
We’re releasing MEDF (Mutable Expression Description Format) — an open document format designed for the AI era.
The core idea is simple:
AI-generated documents are not the problem. Unverifiable documents are.
Instead of trying to detect or ban AI-generated text, MEDF focuses on fixing the canonical meaning of a document, while allowing its expressions (PDF, Markdown, indexes, summaries) to remain mutable.
What MEDF does
Documents are split into semantic blocks
Each block and the document as a whole are hashed and signed
Offline verification is possible (no external services required)
Indexes and views are explicitly non-canonical and regenerable
AI usage is optional metadata — not a requirement for validity
What MEDF does NOT do
No AI detection
No watermarking
No blockchain dependency
No centralized trust service
We believe this approach works better for:
government and administrative documents
academic papers and citations
long-term archives in the AI era
Repository (spec + early foundation): https://github.com/maskin/medf
This is not a final standard — it’s a starting point. Critical feedback is very welcome.