The economy for artisanal products such as Navajo rugs or Pashmina shawls are often threatened by mass-produced fakes. We propose the use of AI-based authentication as one part of a larger system that would replace extractive economies with generative circulation. In this case study we examine initial experiments towards the development of a cell phone based authentication app for kente cloth in west Africa. We describe the context of weavers and cloth sales; an initial test of a machine learning algorithm for distinguishing between real and fake kente, and an outline of the next stages of development.National Science Foundation (NSF) grant #1640014Mcubed grant #8330Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156393/1/Robinson et al. 2020.pdfDescription of Robinson et al. 2020.pdf : PrePrintSELF