Our newsroom is observing the evolution of AI with curiosity — and caution.
The world of artificial intelligence offers promise and peril in equal measures, which is why Civil Beat is moving into this new world cautiously. The trust of our readers is far more important to us than speed or experimentation, so we will continue to view all new AI tools with the skepticism they deserve.
For now, our use of AI begins and ends with human beings. It is limited to background tasks such as transcribing notes from audio and video, assisting with computer programming for data analysis, and scraping information from public websites.
The world of AI is changing daily. If our thinking on its use in our newsroom evolves in the future, we will update this policy.
- We will never use AI to write stories or create or alter photos. Period. That creative work is our core job as journalists.
- If we rely on AI in any significant way behind the scenes for research or to crunch numbers, we will ensure that a reporter thoroughly fact checks the resulting information.
- Any new AI tool that shows promise for newsroom use in these limited ways will first be reviewed by an editor.
- If you submit content for publication, such as a Community Voices piece, a column or even just a comment, please do not use AI to write it. We will spot check work with AI-detecting software and reject submissions — but that’s an imperfect approach, so we need to trust you, too.
- When you offer us a photo, such as a campaign mugshot or an image of a newsy event, please do not use AI to alter reality. We deal in facts, not fiction, and we will check that, too. We already have rejected photos and will continue to do so.
- If AI is part of your organizing or editing process in any way, please disclose that to the editor you are working with so together we can determine whether your use fits our standards.
