• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 11, 2025

Most newsrooms are trying to cope with artificial intelligence. One challenge is learning how to employ it at all. Another is deciding how much to tell the readers.

Yet another complication is AI clauses in union contracts. The PEN Guild, which represents 250 employees at Politico, accused that publication earlier this year of violating guidelines included in its contract according to an analysis by NiemanLab.  

NiemanLab has achieved a scoop of sorts by obtaining a transcript of a July 11 arbitration hearing. Among the items discussed was Politico’s Report Builder tool, which allows Politico Pro subscribers to “create AI-generated write-ups of niche policy subjects using Politico’s archive,” Nieman Lab writes. 

However, that tool generated false statements, Nieman Lab notes.   

Joe Schatz, deputy editor in chief, argues that Report Builder content cannot be held to Politico’s usual high editorial standard because Report Builder sits “outside the newsroom.” 

“I would not publish this as an article because it’s not an article,” Schatz says. 

That sounds right, although some observers disagree. But what if it sneaks in? Will the news audience trust the information it is getting?

It wasn’t just Report Builder: Politico's other tool, LETO, which is subject to editorial control, apparently updates copy so quickly that the editors can barely keep up with its summaries. It, too, published factual and spelling errors on the home page.  

But don’t expect Politico to pull back from these experiments.  

We must remember that Politico is owned by Axel Springer, the CEO of which, Mathias Döpfner, famously said, “Nobody in the company has to explain in the company why she or he is using AI to do something — whether to prepare a presentation or analyze a document. You only have to explain if you didn’t use AI.”

For what it’s worth, Politico’s formal AI policy reads as follows:

“If AI technology is used by Politico or its employees to supplement or assist in their newsgathering, such as the collection, organization, recording or maintenance of information, it must be done in compliance with Politico’s standards of journalistic ethics and involve human oversight.”

There is a question of how thoroughly that is being upheld, and how transparent it is.

The bottom line is that the union isn’t happy.