Standards
AI Usage Policy
How this newsroom uses artificial intelligence—and where humans remain accountable.
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In short
Our editors use AI tools to help draft, research, and format content. Nothing publishes without human review, and responsibility for everything on this site rests with our editors—never with a tool.
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Where we use AI
Our editors use AI tools as production assistance: drafting and revising text, summarizing source material, checking style and formatting, generating headline and metadata options, and assisting research. AI helps our small team maintain wire-service standards; it does not replace editorial judgment.
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Human review, always
No article or release is published by an automated system. A human editor reviews every piece of content before it goes live—for accuracy, labeling, compliance with our Editorial Guidelines, and basic sense. The reviewing editor is accountable for what publishes, and our bylines reflect that accountability: named editors for reporting, the FreePress Directory Newswire byline for distributed releases.
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What we do not do
We do not publish fully automated content without human review. We do not use AI to fabricate quotes, sources, events, or data. We do not present AI-generated imagery as photojournalism; where a synthetic illustration is used, it is credited as an illustration. We do not use AI to generate fake authors or personas.
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Press releases and AI
Issuing organizations may use AI in drafting the releases they submit; our review process applies identically either way. Releases are checked by a human editor against our standards before publication, and the disclosure line on every release identifies the issuer as the source of its claims.
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Errors
AI assistance does not dilute our corrections standard. If AI-assisted content contains an error, we correct it under our Corrections Policy—the tool is never the excuse.
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Questions
Questions about our use of AI go to editor@freepressdirectory.com.
Revision Note
Material changes to this policy are noted here.
August 2026
Rewritten to the site’s policy template; scope expanded to cover imagery and release submissions.