How We Use AI

Updated November 1, 2026

AI has changed the way we put together Upward News, and we think you deserve a straight answer about how. So here it is: what AI does for us, what it doesn’t, and how we label the things it produces.

Choosing the stories is ours alone

The most important and most time-sensitive part of our job is curating the news: deciding which stories matter, then digging into them. Algorithms and AI play absolutely no role in that. Every story you read from Upward News was chosen by a person on our team because we think it’s important.

Every story starts with people

Every Upward News article begins with human research and human writing. Our editors read the sources and write the first draft by hand. That part of the job hasn’t changed, and it isn’t going to.

Where AI helps

Once the work is underway, AI helps us move faster through the steps that used to eat up hours:

  • Research. It helps us gather background and track down documents and earlier coverage, so we can get to the original sources sooner.

  • Fact-checking. It gives us a second pass that flags claims to double-check against our sources.

  • Copy editing. It catches typos, grammar slips and sentences that could be clearer.

  • Getting the newsletter out. It helps us check that each email is ready to go before it lands in your inbox.

The judgment calls stay with us: what’s accurate, what matters and how we cover it. AI makes us faster. It doesn’t make those decisions.

What AI produces, and how we label it

A few things are produced with AI directly:

  • Automated summaries. Our Story Tracker summaries are written by AI and published under the “Upward News AI” byline, so you always know what you’re reading. An editor reviews every one before it’s published.

  • Interview transcripts. We use AI to transcribe our podcast interviews.

  • The audio edition. The daily audio version of our newsletter is read by an AI voice.

Why we work this way

We’re a small team, and AI gives us back time we used to spend on mechanical work. We put that time into what you come to Upward News for: finding the stories that matter and explaining them clearly. Faster shouldn’t mean less careful, so if AI ever helps us get something wrong, the mistake is ours, and we fix it the way we fix any error, as our editorial guidelines describe.

Questions?

If you want to know more about how we use AI, write to us at [email protected].

  • The Upward News Editorial Team