Capitol News Illinois AI Policy
Capitol News Illinois instituted this policy in late 2025 to set parameters of the newsroom’s use of artificial intelligence and define which uses are — or are not — permissible. We developed it based on the examples of newsrooms such as the Texas Tribune, Associated Press and other newsrooms. We will regularly revisit and update the policy, as needed, as technology evolves.
AI is a tool for journalists, not a creator of journalism.
- Capitol News Illinois will not replace our journalists with artificial intelligence. Our journalists are the strength of our newsroom, and AI can’t replicate their rigorous, independent and original work. Journalists will oversee any use of AI.
- We will not publish AI-generated text in our public-facing news products, and if there is a situation that calls for it, we will disclose its use. Any use of AI will be rigorously fact-checked by journalists and editors. Our journalists will not use or cite AI as a primary information source.
- Journalists will be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of AI tools and should treat any text generated by AI as unvetted source material. They will disclose to editors any role AI has played in their reporting process and how they have independently confirmed information received through AI.
Journalists may, with caution and skepticism, use AI as a tool.
- Journalists may employ AI tools for tasks such as data analysis, transcription, headline/SEO and social platform writing. But they must critically examine the tool’s output, edit for accuracy and rigorously vet any factual claims.
- We protect our sources. So, our journalists will not put confidential information, anonymous sources or privately obtained documents into third-party AI tools.
When we use AI to produce the content you engage with, we’ll let you know.
- If you’re reading information we’ve produced with the help of AI, such as through data analysis tools, we will clearly disclose within the published story how we used the tools.
- We may use AI for tasks such as social media and search engine optimization without individual disclosures of such use. And our newsroom uses AI transcription services, with rigorous review by editors and reporters, which we won’t individually disclose per story. But if we create journalism products that rely on AI to generate public-facing information, such as a chatbot or interactive module, we will let you know how AI was incorporated.
- Some or all stories may include a link to an AI-generated voiced version of our stories. In those instances, AI is simply voicing the work of our journalists and editors to promote accessibility.
We will not use AI to generate images for news stories.
- AI won’t replace our news photography. We don’t alter elements of photos, aside from standard cropping, lighting and color adjustments. We won’t use AI to generate images to accompany our stories or alter images created by our journalists.
- If an AI-generated image becomes newsworthy, such as if a campaign is distributing an artificially generated image, we may include it in the news story with a tag and caption that clearly indicates it was AI generated and shares relevant context. View an example here.
Our non-journalist employees may use AI as a tool.
- Non-editorial employees may use AI-generated text, with thorough oversight, for functions related to development, operations, copywriting assistance, workflow automation and other such tasks, subject to thorough human review. Anything reaching the public via journalism platforms such as advertising and fundraising content, should be subject to thorough human review.
- Before employing such a tool, employees discuss it with their manager. But we will never disclose personal or confidential information to third-party AI systems.
