AI Use Disclosure

1. Our Position on AI

"Everything entrusted to The Good Fruit — attention, money, information, influence, relationships, technology, and time — shall be treated as a responsibility."— The Good Fruit Constitution, Article VII: Stewardship

Artificial intelligence tools are now part of how many organizations work. The Good Fruit is no exception. We use AI tools in our work, and we believe in being honest about that.

Our position is straightforward: AI is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used well or poorly, responsibly or recklessly. The Good Fruit approaches AI with both openness and caution — open to the genuine capabilities it offers, cautious about the ways it can mislead, fabricate, or substitute for the human judgment and accountability that our readers deserve.

AI does not carry editorial responsibility at The Good Fruit. People do. Every piece of work we publish — regardless of what tools were used to produce it — is the responsibility of a human being who can be held accountable for it. That accountability is not transferable to a machine.

This document explains how we use AI, what limits we place on that use, and what standards govern the work that AI assists with.

2. How We Use AI

The Good Fruit uses AI tools to assist with a range of tasks. We are honest about this. The following are examples of how AI may be used in our work:

3. What AI Cannot Do at The Good Fruit

The following limits are not aspirational — they are operational standards that govern how AI is used in our work.

• AI cannot carry editorial responsibility. Every piece of work published by The Good Fruit is the responsibility of a human contributor. AI output does not carry a byline, does not bear accountability, and cannot be held responsible for errors. The human who reviews, edits, and approves work is responsible for it — regardless of what tools were used.
• AI output is treated as unverified until reviewed. AI tools can generate plausible-sounding text, citations, statistics, and analysis that are factually wrong. At The Good Fruit, AI output is treated as a draft or a starting point — never as a verified source. Claims, citations, and factual assertions produced by AI are verified before they are used in published work.
• AI output is not a substitute for evidence. No contributor at The Good Fruit may use AI-generated content as a substitute for primary sources, original reporting, or verified evidence. AI may help organize or summarize evidence — it does not replace it.
• AI does not determine editorial conclusions. The conclusions we reach — about products, companies, practices, claims, or ideas — are the result of human judgment applied to verified evidence. AI tools do not determine what we conclude, recommend, or publish. They may assist with the work that leads to those conclusions; they do not make them.

4. Verification Standards

The Good Fruit applies verification standards to AI-generated content that are proportionate to the consequence of the claim. The higher the stakes, the more rigorous the verification required.

The following types of AI-generated content are treated as unverified until reviewed to the level required by their consequence:

• Factual claims — any assertion of fact produced or suggested by an AI tool is verified against primary sources before use in published work;
• Citations and references — AI tools frequently hallucinate citations. Every citation produced with AI assistance is verified to exist and to say what it is claimed to say;
• Summaries — AI-generated summaries of sources, studies, or documents are checked against the original material to ensure accuracy and completeness;
• Code — AI-generated code is reviewed and tested before deployment, with particular attention to security, correctness, and unintended behavior;
• Analysis — AI-generated analysis is reviewed by a human contributor with appropriate expertise before it is used to support a conclusion; and
• Quotes and attributions — AI tools are not used to generate or paraphrase quotes attributed to real people. Quotes are sourced from primary materials.

5. Privacy and Confidentiality

The Good Fruit takes seriously the privacy and confidentiality of the information entrusted to us — by readers, sources, subjects, and partners.

The following standards govern how AI tools are used in relation to sensitive information:

• Sensitive personal information — information that could identify, harm, or expose an individual — is not placed into AI systems without appropriate authorization and safeguards;
• Confidential source information — information provided to us in confidence by sources — is not placed into AI systems;
• Legally protected information — information subject to legal privilege, confidentiality agreements, or other legal protections — is not placed into AI systems without appropriate legal review; and
• Reader data — information about our readers is not used as input to AI systems for purposes beyond what readers would reasonably expect.

We are aware that many AI tools process input data in ways that may expose it to third parties or use it for model training. We take this into account when deciding which tools to use and what information to provide to them.

6. Disclosure to Readers

The Good Fruit believes readers have a right to understand how the work they are reading was produced. Our disclosure standard is grounded in materiality — we disclose AI use when it is material to how work was produced or how much human review occurred.

Routine assistance is not performative disclosure. We use AI tools in the same way we use spell-checkers, search engines, and word processors — as tools that assist human work. We do not believe that disclosing every use of every tool serves readers. What serves readers is knowing when AI use is material to the nature or reliability of the work.

The following types of AI use will be disclosed to readers:

• Material AI authorship — when AI tools contributed substantially to the writing of a published piece, that contribution will be disclosed;
• Synthetic media — AI-generated images, audio, video, or other synthetic media used in published work will be identified as AI-generated;
• Consequential automated analysis — when AI tools performed analysis that materially contributed to a conclusion or recommendation, that will be disclosed; and
• Automated systems presented as human — we will not disguise automated systems as human relationships, human-authored content, or human judgment.

We will not hide material AI use. We will not claim human authorship for work that was substantially produced by AI. We will not use AI to fabricate quotes, sources, or evidence.

7. AI and Reader Trust

"Every person who enters The Good Fruit shall be treated first as a person — not as traffic, a conversion, a customer profile, a data point, or a source of revenue. We shall not use fear, confusion, false urgency, hidden incentives, manufactured intimacy, or manipulative design to influence the people we serve."— The Good Fruit Constitution, Article III: Our Neighbor

Technology — including AI — is not used at The Good Fruit to manipulate readers. The following commitments govern how AI and automation interact with our readers:

• No manufactured intimacy. We do not use AI to simulate personal relationships, fabricate familiarity, or create the impression of human connection where none exists;
• No fabricated social proof. We do not use AI to generate fake reviews, testimonials, engagement metrics, or social signals;
• No attention manipulation. We do not use AI to optimize content for addictive engagement, exploit psychological vulnerabilities, or keep readers on the site against their better judgment;
• No disguised automation. Automated systems that interact with readers — such as chatbots or automated responses — will be identified as automated; and
• Personalization serves the reader. If we use personalization or recommendation systems, they are designed to serve the reader's genuine interests — not to maximize time-on-site, clicks, or revenue at the reader's expense.

The reader's agency is not something to be engineered around. It is something to be respected.

8. Our Commitment

"We will resist the belief that more is always better, faster is always wiser, or larger is always more faithful. Resources shall be managed with care, transparency, restraint, and a long view toward the people and purpose they are meant to serve."— The Good Fruit Constitution, Article VII: Stewardship

The Good Fruit approaches AI with both openness and caution. We are open to the genuine capabilities AI offers — the ability to work more efficiently, to serve readers better, to make our work more accessible, and to accomplish more with limited resources. We are cautious about the ways AI can mislead, fabricate, concentrate power, erode accountability, and substitute the appearance of work for the substance of it.

Our Christian values ground this approach. We believe that truth matters, that people have dignity, that accountability is not optional, and that the tools we use shape the kind of institution we become. We will not use AI in ways that compromise our commitment to truth, harm the people we serve, or allow us to evade the accountability that our readers deserve.

This policy will be updated as our use of AI evolves and as the technology and its implications become clearer. We will not pretend to have all the answers. We will continue to ask the right questions.

9. Contact

If you have questions about this AI Use Disclosure, concerns about how AI was used in a specific piece of work, or feedback about our approach to AI, please contact us: