The small print

AI Policy

We cover AI for a living, and we use it too. Pretending otherwise would be a strange opening move for a publication that has “facts first” in its values. So here is exactly how it works.

What AI helps with

• Research: finding, sorting and summarising sources, which we then check against the originals
• Transcription: turning episodes and interviews into text
• Editing: tightening drafts, catching errors, checking house style
• Ideation: kicking ideas around, stress-testing an argument, finding the counter-case
• Production: video, imagery, graphics and audio for our shows and satire
• Code and workflow: building and running this website and the tools behind it

What stays human

Every piece we publish has a human editor who is responsible for it. AI can draft, suggest and assist. It does not decide what we publish, and it does not get the blame when we get something wrong. That’s on us.

Opinions published under Vinny O’Brien’s name are his opinions.

Telling you what’s what

• Satire is labelled as satire. Nearly News, the ticker and our other comic formats are jokes built on real stories. If a joke could be mistaken for reporting, we make the frame clear.
• Synthetic people are disclosed. Some of our recurring characters, including our correspondents and a certain talent agent, are fictional and AI-generated. They are characters, not real people, and we don’t present them as real.
• We don’t fake real people. We don’t generate the likeness or voice of real, identifiable people without their consent.
• Facts are checked against sources, not models. A figure that came from an AI tool is not published until we’ve traced it to a primary source.

Corrections

If AI-assisted work leads to an error, we correct it visibly, the same as any other mistake. See Our Values.

Questions about this policy go to vinny@thevspotnews.com.