Founded by former Australian Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel AC who serves as the Executive Chairman with Trevor Woods as the CEO, Proudly Human independently certifies and verifies human‑created work, offering creators the ProudlyHuman™ trust mark, and audiences a way to easily identify and choose human‑created work over AI‑generated work.
Simons has spent his career in music, technology, media and the creator economy. He is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Vinyl Group (ASX: VNL), a diversified adaptive media and music technology company, whose assets include PEDESTRIAN.TV, Rolling Stone Australia, BuzzFeed Australia, Time Out Australia, Concrete Playground, Mediaweek, and creator and music platforms such as Vampr, Vinyl.com and Serenade.
Prior to technology and media, Simons was a recording artist and songwriter. He went on to found Vampr, a professional network and talent marketplace for the music industry with more than 1.6 million users worldwide. After Jaxsta acquired Vampr in 2023, Simons was named CEO of the listed company and led its transformation into Vinyl Group. Simons has raised more than A$50 million historically across his ventures.
Dr Alan Finkel AC, Founder and Executive Chairman Proudly Human, said Simons' experience working directly with creators, as well as building technology and media businesses, would bring a valuable perspective to Proudly Human. Proudly Human Founding CEO, Trevor Woods, said: “Josh has spent his career at the nexus of creativity and technology. He understands both the incredible opportunities technology can create, and the importance of provenance and value of human creativity. As Proudly Human continues to expand into music, publishing and media, that perspective will be hugely valuable.”
Simons said the rapid uptake of generative AI made clear where transparency about creative provenance became crucial: “I've spent my life either making things myself or building businesses that rely on human creativity, whilst also being a believer in technology and the potential of AI. They're not mutually exclusive positions. What Proudly Human is doing is establishing a simple but important principle: people should know what they're consuming and who or what has created it. Human creativity has value because it comes from human experience, judgement and expression, and being able to identify that provenance will become more important, not less. Alan recognised the problem early and has sought to address it pragmatically, building infrastructure for transparency and choice rather than being anti‑technological progress. I'm very pleased to be joining Proudly Human and helping to advance that mission, particularly in music, media and the creator economy.”
Proudly Human describes its mission as pro‑human, not anti‑AI. Its independent certification framework sets published limits on the use of artificial intelligence, assesses creative works against them and marks certified works with a publicly verifiable trust mark. Proudly Human is continuing to expand in publishing, journalism, visual arts, music, film, podcasting and other creative industries.
Media Contact
Belinda Hayes, Proudly Human
+61 402 635 465
Belinda@proudlyhuman.org
https://www.proudlyhuman.org/
ABOUT PROUDLY HUMAN
Proudly Human is the international certification body that verifies and labels human‑created content, services and products. The Proudly Human™ trust mark is similar in spirit to Certified Organic or Fairtrade certification. It gives audiences the information they need to choose between human‑created work and AI‑generated content.
ABOUT JOSH SIMONS
Josh Simons is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Vinyl Group Ltd (ASX: VNL), a diversified adaptive media and music technology company operating across publishing and platforms. He is the founder of Vampr, a global professional network and talent marketplace for the music industry with more than 1.6 million users, which was acquired by Jaxsta in 2023. Simons subsequently became CEO and led the company's transformation into Vinyl Group. A former recording artist and songwriter, Simons has spent his career across music, technology, media and the creator economy and has raised more than A$50 million for ventures he has led.