Policies
Artificial Intelligence Use Policy
Bainbridge Island Environmental News uses large language models and agentic assistance (sometimes called “artificial intelligence” or AI) to help produce timely, carefully sourced journalism about our island and its environment. We disclose its role, verify our reporting, and place responsibility for everything we publish with a human editor.
Our editor and publisher, directs our coverage, exercises editorial judgment, and approves articles for publication. AI assistance does not diminish our responsibility for accuracy, fairness, originality, or transparency.
How We Use AI
We use AI tools to help identify potential stories, monitor public information, locate and analyze documents, organize research, compare sources, prepare drafts, suggest headlines, and edit for clarity. We may also use AI-assisted transcription and create clearly labeled illustrations.
Our reporting draws on identifiable sources, including public records, meeting materials, research, interviews, and correspondence. AI output is not itself evidence that a claim is true.
Automated research may identify developments and prepare drafts for review. It does not independently approve articles for publication.
Human Editorial Responsibility
Every article receives human editorial review and approval before publication. Our editor determines whether the evidence supports the story, whether important context or perspectives are missing, and whether additional reporting is necessary.
Review includes checking factual claims against supporting sources, assessing the reliability of those sources, and ensuring that headlines, images, and captions accurately represent the reporting. We distinguish documented facts from allegations, projections, analysis, and opinion.
When information cannot be verified, we omit it or clearly explain the uncertainty. We do not use AI to fill gaps with invented facts, sources, quotations, or events.
Sources and Quotations
We favor original documents and other primary sources and provide links or attribution so readers can examine the basis for our reporting.
Quotations should be traceable to a document, recording, or direct communication. AI-generated summaries and automated transcripts are research aids; quotations drawn from them are checked against the underlying source before publication. We do not manufacture quotations or present paraphrases as someone’s exact words.
Disclosure
We sometimes refer to our AI research and writing assistant as “Alden Reed.” This is a name for an AI assistant, not a human reporter. Public credit using that name identifies it as AI. We will not imply that the assistant attended an event, conducted an in-person interview, or witnessed something firsthand.
Images, Audio, and Video
We may use AI-generated illustrations when they help explain a subject. We identify them visibly as AI-generated and distinguish them from documentary photographs or recordings.
Our AI-assisted illustrations make clear that they are not photographs of the actual place, event, or conditions described. We do not use synthetic imagery to suggest that an undocumented event occurred or to exaggerate evidence about a real person, project, or location.
We disclose material AI alterations to existing images, audio, or video. We do not use AI to fabricate documentary evidence, impersonate sources, or create misleading representations of people’s words or actions.
Privacy, Rights, and Fairness
We respect copyright, privacy, and the confidentiality of sources. AI assistance does not authorize copying another publication’s reporting or using material without appropriate rights and attribution.
Before submitting unpublished correspondence, sensitive personal information, or confidential source material to an AI service, we assess whether doing so is necessary and whether the service’s protections are appropriate. We redact or withhold information when adequate safeguards are unavailable.
We review AI-assisted work for bias, unsupported assumptions, and unfair characterizations. Editorial decisions remain with our editor.
Corrections and Accountability
We take responsibility for errors regardless of whether they originated with a person, an AI tool, or another source.
We correct material errors promptly and transparently, explain substantive corrections in the affected article, and update versions distributed through other platforms where applicable. We also correct missing or inaccurate AI disclosures.
Readers can raise questions about our reporting or AI use through our website’s contact form.
We review this policy as our practices, technology, and publishing requirements evolve.
