About Salon
Salon is a spirited home for journalism that takes a critical look at current events, seeks alternatives to the status quo, engages with big ideas and holds power to account. Embracing a wide range of liberal and progressive views, we cover the arts and culture with rigor and insight, champion social progress and, with our digital community, lead good-faith debates about the stuff that really matters. We question authority and assumptions, starting with our own.
One of the first entirely digital major media outlets, Salon has driven the national conversation since 1995 through fearless journalism distributed across Salon.com, Salon TV, social media, news platforms, email newsletters and mobile apps. Salon’s content reaches an audience of approximately 10 million monthly unique visitors. Read more about Salon’s award-winning journalism.
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In November of 2023, fast-growing, privately-held media company Find.co acquired Salon.com from prior owners Drew Schoentrup and Chris Richmond. Salon.com thus joined Find.co’s portfolio of media assets with a continued focus on smart, informed, timely reporting and provocative opinion and critical analysis.
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How Salon uses (and thinks about) AI
An ongoing commitment
Last updated: 8.14.26
This is not a static policy. We commit to revisiting these principles, learning openly and adjusting thoughtfully. What will not change is our core belief that journalism is a human responsibility, and technology should serve that responsibility, not replace it.
If you have questions, concerns or feedback about how we use AI, we invite you to share them with us at readermail@salon.com.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how information is created, distributed and consumed. At Salon, we approach these tools with both curiosity and caution.
We believe AI can be useful in supporting journalism, for example, by helping with research, transcription, translation, accessibility or internal workflows. But we also believe that journalism is, at its core, a human endeavor: built on judgment, accountability, trust and relationships with sources and audiences.
This page explains the values that guide how we use, and don’t use, AI in our work.
These principles apply across Salon — in our newsroom, product development, marketing and business operations — and they shape every decision we make about adopting new tools and practices.
Our core principles
1. Transparency
We believe our audience deserves to understand how our journalism is made.
When AI meaningfully contributes to editorial content, whether through research, analysis, summarization or visual creation, we aim to disclose that use in clear, specific ways. That might be a brief note, a caption or a longer explanation, depending on the context.
We are transparent not only to build trust, but to help readers understand how these technologies work, where they help and where they fall short. We do not treat AI as a hidden layer behind our journalism, and we don’t believe it should be invisible when it shapes what audiences see.
We will also disclose direct partnerships with AI companies, such as licensing our archives.
2. Accuracy and human oversight
All information gathered or generated by AI requires human verification. Everything we publish will live up to our long-time standards of verification. For example, an editor will review prompts and any other inputs used to generate substantial content, including data analysis, in addition to the editing process in place for all of our content. We will actively monitor and address biases in AI-generated content, ensuring fairness and equity in our journalism.
3. Privacy and security
Our relationship with our audience and sources is built on trust. We do not enter sensitive, private, identifying or proprietary information into open AI systems. This includes personal data about readers, confidential source material or internal communications.
When we experiment with AI in product features or personalization, we do so in accordance with our privacy policy, with clear disclosure and respect for user choice. Privacy will not be compromised for convenience or innovation.
4. Accountability
Salon is accountable for everything we publish, regardless of whether a human or an AI system helped produce it. Any errors or inaccuracies resulting from the use of these tools will be transparently addressed and corrected. We actively seek feedback from our audience and staff, and we expect to evolve our approach as technology continues to evolve.
5. Exploration in service of our mission
We embrace exploration, experimentation and thoughtful innovation as they adhere to our core principles. We explore AI tools when they improve our ability to report, explain or reach audiences, or support our staff in doing higher-quality work more sustainably. We will regularly communicate about and ensure our staff is knowledgeable about the responsible and ethical use of generative AI tools.
How these principles show up in practice
Here are some examples of how we may use AI, and how our values shape that use.
We may use AI to:
- Summarize academic research or large public datasets as a reporting aid while explaining the conclusions we reach.
- Transcribe interviews, with journalists reviewing against recordings.
- Translate material for background research.
- Assist with copyediting, grammar or clarity suggestions.
- Generate outlines or frameworks that are then adapted, written and verified by humans.
- Help create accessibility features like summaries or structured formats.
- Help brainstorm headlines, social media and promotional copy.
Visuals and representation
Images carry particular power and risk, so we treat AI-generated visuals with special caution. We prefer human reporting and documentation whenever possible. We value accuracy over aesthetics and do not use AI to manipulate reality, including altering real people, places or events in ways that could mislead. All AI-assisted visuals must be reviewed, verified and clearly labeled so audiences understand what they’re seeing and how it was created.