Last updated on July 20, 2026. Read a Letter from the Editors on this policy here.

In Writing

Using AI to draft an article, op-ed or personal essay for The Stanford Daily is prohibited. Any writer who includes AI-generated text in a draft without clearly disclosing the use to their editors has committed plagiarism.

In Editing

The use of AI to edit work is prohibited, including in copy editing. This includes the use of tools like Grammarly.

All published work already goes through several rounds of human editors.

In Reporting

The use of AI is permitted for some process-level information gathering, but prohibited for shaping ideas or writing.

For example, AI is permissible to use as a search engine and for scraping documents or spreadsheets.

Reporters are responsible for fact-checking and verifying all information gathered with assistance from AI tools, which can be fallible and prone to “hallucinations.”

This permission is based on the condition that reporters take reasonable precautions to protect sources’ data. Writers are prohibited from uploading sources’ off-the-record information or identity to an LLM.

In Data Journalism

The use of AI is acceptable in the process of data scraping and coding, on the condition that the information used is not confidential. It is prohibited to share confidential source documents or identifiable information with an LLM or other AI coding tools.

All data analysis must be overseen and thoroughly verified by humans. 

Photo, Video and Graphics

AI use in the production of photo, video, graphics or cartoons is strictly prohibited. 

Games

The use of AI in producing games, from crossword clue generation to cryptic puzzles, is strictly prohibited.

Online Comments

Online comments that are unambiguously AI-generated will be deleted by The Daily’s executive editors, in order to preserve the comment section as a space where individuals speak in their own words.

Newsroom Implementation and Ethics

The intention of this policy is to create an honor code for all staffers at The Daily to follow. Every member of The Daily must sign this AI policy upon joining, and any work in violation of this policy will be barred from publication with The Stanford Daily. 

Above all, our newsroom must foster strong relationships between contributors, editors and other newsroom leaders, in which contributors are comfortable disclosing to an editor when they have used AI and how. As the capabilities and use cases of AI evolve, we must continue having candid conversations with each other.