This policy establishes clear, responsible guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools at The Sopris Sun and Sol del Valle. It ensures we use AI safely, ethically and effectively to support our journalism, while safeguarding accuracy, trust and human editorial judgement. The policy applies to all staff, freelancers, guest writers and interns involved in the creation of content we publish.
Core standards for AI use
● Human oversight: All AI-assisted content must be reviewed, verified and approved by a human editor with training in AI ethics and mechanics before publication.
● Transparency and disclosure: When AI tools significantly contribute to content, we must clearly disclose this to our audience. See acceptable uses below.
● Editorial and ethical standards: AI use must align with our newsroom’s ethics and policies, including accuracy, fairness, independence, respect for privacy and public accountability.
● Privacy and security: Contributors must not input confidential, unpublished or sensitive information into external AI tools without explicit approval.
● Ongoing training and evaluation: Ongoing training opportunities on AI technologies will be made available to personnel as appropriate, and new AI tools must be evaluated for alignment with editorial and ethical standards.
● Accountability: Final editorial responsibility always lies with our personnel, not the tool. Anyone using AI for any aspect of their work must disclose this to their editor.
● Avoid automation bias: Personnel must be aware that AI outputs can reflect systemic bias or false information.
Acceptable uses for AI
● Background research and idea prompts
● Drafting headlines, summaries, captions or SEO tags
● Assisting with data analysis, sorting and the creation of simple visualizations including graphs, maps and charts
● Transcription, partial translation (with bilingual human review for publication)
● Generating non-news illustrations (clearly labeled as AI-generated)
● Audience engagement tools, with editorial oversight
Prohibited or restricted uses
● Publishing AI-generated content without human editing and approval
● Generating full news stories or opinion columns
● Uploading confidential materials into external AI platforms
● Using AI to generate deepfakes (photos, video, audio)
● Using AI to fabricate quotes, sources or bypass copyright protections
Disclosure Practices. When AI meaningfully shapes a story, graphic or other content, we will include a disclosure, such as: “This story includes reporting assisted by artificial intelligence tools and reviewed by [Name, Title].”
Regarding advertising
● We encourage advertisers to hire artists for their campaigns, but do not restrict the use of AI imagery or text.
Before using any AI platform, staff should:
● Understand its data retention and privacy policies
● Confirm it does not store or reuse inputs for training or commercial purposes Approved tools: Google NotebookLM, ChatGPT, Otter.ai, Mountain Perspectives, Yodel
This policy was developed with assistance from sopris.ai following two training sessions that welcomed our staff, board, freelancers and guest writers. The policy should be reviewed annually by the Sopris Sun board of directors, Sol del Valle advisory council and staff.