Politico’s AI tool spits out made-up slop, union says

Politico’s new AI product has generated garbled or made-up Washington intelligence, including a lobbying effort by a fictional basket-weaver guild, the outlet’s unionized staff has complained.

Last year, Semafor first reported that Politico was working on a new product with Capital AI: a new AI tool for its high-paying subscribers that promised to allow them to instantaneously generate detailed reports on topics with information collected by Politico’s reporters.

Earlier this year, Politico’s editorial union filed a complaint against the company over its use of AI, which editorial staffers said violated language in their contract that stipulated that if AI is used, it “must be done in compliance with POLITICO’s standards of journalistic ethics and involve human oversight.”

In several examples printed out and shared in Politico’s Rosslyn, Virginia, newsroom last week, staff pointed to instances where the tool appeared to garble the publication’s reporting, or generate reports filled with completely made-up information.