Principle

As an independent digital publication dedicated to examining the governance, societal impact, and youth privacy implications of artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems, NextGen Privacy holds itself to exemplary standards regarding the use of AI in journalism. We believe that credible journalism requires human intelligence, empathy, skepticism, ethical deliberation, and direct accountability. Generative AI systems cannot conduct investigative shoe-leather reporting, evaluate source veracity, experience moral responsibility, or defend the public interest.

This policy defines our strict operational boundaries regarding the deployment of AI tools across our newsroom, ensuring transparency, preventing deception, and upholding the integrity of our published reporting.

Scope

This policy applies to all staff journalists, editors, freelance contributors, researchers, graphic designers, and commercial staff at NextGen Privacy. It governs all text generation, linguistic editing, translation, coding, audio/video production, and data analysis.

Permitted Assistance

NextGen Privacy permits the limited use of specialized software and algorithmic utilities strictly as assistive tools under direct human supervision. Permitted applications include:

Audio transcription of recorded on-the-record interviews, provided the transcript is manually audited against the original audio recording by the reporter;
Grammar and spell-checking software that does not generate new substantive prose;
Optical character recognition (OCR) and document indexing tools for searching large volumes of public records;
Basic statistical coding assistance (e.g., debugging Python or R scripts used for network telemetry analysis), provided the outputs are verified independently by our data desk.

Prohibited Uses

NextGen Privacy strictly prohibits several applications of artificial intelligence: Generative AI tools (such as large language models) may never be used to author news articles, draft policy analyses, generate headlines, or compose opinion columns. We prohibit the use of AI to generate synthetic quotations or simulate expert interviews.

Furthermore, reporters may never use AI tools to replace firsthand investigative reporting, verify factual claims, or conduct ethical decision-making.

AI Output Is Not Evidence

The output of a generative AI model is fundamentally probabilistic text, not factual evidence. AI models are prone to hallucinating citations, case numbers, statutory provisions, and historical events. Under no circumstances may an AI output be cited as an authoritative factual source in any reporting published by NextGen Privacy.

Material Disclosure

If an article or data project utilizes AI-assisted processing in any material way—such as utilizing machine-learning clustering algorithms to analyze millions of public school board procurement records—that methodology must be explicitly disclosed in the published article, detailing the specific software models and verification procedures employed.

Disclosure Language

Disclosures must be prominent, clear, and unambiguous, utilizing standardized language such as: ‘Methodology note: Large-scale public procurement records were indexed using open-source machine learning clustering tools, with all categorized samples manually verified by NextGen Privacy reporters.’

Authorship and Identity

Bylines on NextGen Privacy belong exclusively to verified human beings. We do not publish articles under synthetic bylines, AI personas, or automated software accounts. Every published author is personally responsible for every word that appears under their name.

AI-Assisted Research and Drafting

Reporters may not use generative AI platforms to draft article outlines or synthesize core arguments. The synthesis of evidence and development of journalistic arguments must remain an intellectual product of the human author.

Translation and Transcription

In international reporting, machine translation tools may be used for preliminary comprehension of foreign-language regulatory texts. However, any quote, legal term, or statutory passage published in our reporting must be verified by a fluent human translator or native legal specialist.

Data Analysis and Coding

Our data journalism desk may utilize algorithmic tools to process structured datasets. All scripts, statistical models, and data pipelines must be documented, peer-reviewed internally, and subjected to sensitivity testing to prevent algorithmic bias from distorting our conclusions.

Synthetic Images

NextGen Privacy strictly prohibits the use of AI image generators (such as Midjourney, DALL-E, or Stable Diffusion) to create illustrations, editorial cartoons, or photojournalism. Documentary images must be authentic photographs captured by human photographers.

The only exception is when synthetic imagery is the direct subject of investigative reporting (e.g., investigating non-consensual deepfake harassment in schools), in which case the image is prominently watermarked and labeled as synthetic.

Synthetic Audio, Voice and Video

We strictly prohibit the generation of synthetic human voices, cloned narration, or deepfake video in our journalistic podcasts, videos, or multimedia reports. All audio and video assets must feature authentic human participants.

Detection and Reporting on AI

When investigating synthetic media, deepfakes, or algorithmic manipulation online, our reporters consult multiple independent forensic laboratories and technical tools. We do not rely on single commercial ‘AI detector’ utilities, which exhibit high rates of false positives.

Confidentiality and Personal Data

Reporters are strictly forbidden from inputting non-public documents, confidential source tips, unpublished manuscripts, student records, or sensitive personal data into commercial cloud-based AI tools. Doing so breaches source confidentiality and violates data protection principles.

Copyright and Commercial Content

Commercial partners and sponsored content producers are bound by this policy. NextGen Privacy rejects commercial submissions generated by AI, requiring that all partner content be authored by identified human specialists.

Automated Moderation and Recommendations

NextGen Privacy does not deploy opaque algorithmic recommender systems designed to maximize addictive reader engagement. Our website navigation and article curation are directed by human editors.

Corrections and Contributor Declaration

All contributors must sign our AI Compliance Declaration confirming that their submissions are their original human work. If an author is found to have submitted AI-generated copy dishonestly, the piece is rejected or retracted, and the author is permanently banned from NextGen Privacy.

Contact

Questions or concerns regarding our AI policy may be directed to our editorial board: Technology & AI Policy Desk: editorial@nextgenprivacy.org
Ethics & Standards Officer: complaints@nextgenprivacy.org
General Management: contact@nextgenprivacy.org