Our Artificial Intelligence Policy
TL;DR, we use artificial intelligence in our writing and reporting process, but it's tightly controlled and always disclosed.
If you want more information, read on.
Who is Cronkite?
Cronkite is a cat.
Cronkite is also our internal name for our proprietary artificial intelligence platform. Put simply, it helps our journalists gather information and quickly write stories of civic importance.
Humans are always involved in our story creation and reporting process. Artificial intelligence is never used unsupervised in our newsroom. A human stands behind each and every story that is published by citizen journal.
If you see Cronkite's byline on a post, then our AI tool was used to help write that story. We will also disclose that at the bottom of a story. We always disclose where artificial intelligence was used in the writing and reporting process.
What we use AI for
- Quickly editing articles for grammar and context. AI is tightly controlled and supervised during this process.
- Compiling and gathering jail logs, obituaries, and restaurant inspections from already existing sources. Journalists still review these before they are published.
- Tracking and summarizing government meetings. Our journalists have limited time and resources, and this makes it easier for them to keep track of what's going on in multiple cities.
- Producing articles based on press releases, social media posts, and emails. Humans make the final decision on every published article.
What we don't use AI for
- Generating photos of events. Photos published on citizen journal are always 100% real.
- Fabricating quotes.
- Writing and publishing stories unsupervised.
- Making editorial decisions that could materially impact the communities we serve.
If you have any questions for us concerning our artificial intelligence use, please contact us. We're happy to answer any questions you have.
(This policy was not generated by artificial intelligence, but rather hand-written by a human.)