The human voice signs.
No article is published under a generated anonymous byline. Every text is attributed to a real member of the editorial team, who takes responsibility for the content, the framing choices, and the errors.
AION is the first cultural daily that openly states, line by line, what artificial intelligence does and does not do. This page is a contract. It is amendable, dated, archived.
No article is published under a generated anonymous byline. Every text is attributed to a real member of the editorial team, who takes responsibility for the content, the framing choices, and the errors.
A single absolute rule. If a word is in quotation marks, it has been spoken or written by the person to whom it is attributed. Verifiable. Sourceable. This excludes any quotation produced by a model.
An article may be translated from French to Mandarin by our model, then reviewed by our sinophone editorial team. The translation is always flagged, the human translator is named.
Every model-generated illustration (image, infographic) carries a readable watermark and a caption: « Generated image — non-documentary ». No generated image may illustrate a fact.
Every article cites its sources. For sensitive subjects, we publish in an annex the chain of verification: who saw what, who contacted whom, who reviewed. Our transparency is our only licence.
Any article whose subject overlaps a field supported by a patron states it in a footer line. No patron has a right of review over editorial content.
| Task | AI's role | Human role |
|---|---|---|
| Documentary research | Public-source synthesis, angle suggestions | Verification, selection, editorial choice |
| First draft | Outline from journalist's notes | Rewriting, tone, structure, signature |
| Translation | First pass FR ↔ EN ↔ 中文 | Review by bilingual editorial team + human translator for nuance |
| Titles & headlines | Variants proposed | Final choice by editor-in-chief |
| Documentary illustration | Search in licensed databases | Validation by picture editor |
| Generated illustration | Constrained-brief generation | Validation + mandatory labelling |
| Fact-checking | Source cross-referencing | Final decision, source contact, right of reply |
| Reader recommendation | Personalisation algorithm | Manual curation of the front page |
| Radio voices | Never. | All AION Radio voices are human. |
| Quotations | Never. | Always verified against the original source. |
Status as of 19 May 2026 · revised quarterly
We will never make the dead speak. We will never make a famous person answer a question they were not asked. We will never sign a text under an invented name. We will never publish a generated image presented as a document.
If one day, by error, any of these principles is violated, we will publish the correction on the front page and will state precisely what happened.
This is our only licence. We review it collectively each quarter. The current version is dated 19 May 2026.
Yes, provided the editorial decision, source selection, fact verification, and publication responsibility remain human. AI is a production tool, as the typewriter once was. The signature remains human, and it binds.
Because we publish daily in three languages, on two continents, with a small editorial team. AI gives us a coverage an editorial team of our size could never sustain. We acknowledge it.
Every AION article is AI-assisted, to one degree or another. It would be the opposite that warranted a notice. We state it clearly: « Written with AI · Reviewed by the editorial team ».
All human. That is our line. Jingles, music beds, certain sound effects may be generated. Voices never. Ever.