How we use AI
Truly Curious is about pure basic research – and the struggles and triumphs of the real people behind it. That obliges us to be plain about how this publication gets made.
We do not publish AI-generated articles. Every piece is reported and put together by a person.
Where we do use it. After an interview, we use AI to organize the source material. It helps arrange a long transcript into a working structure, to show which threads recur, to lay out what a researcher said across two hours so that an editor can see the larger picture. It also provides inputs on drafts: what else could be added, which parts could do with reworking and how, where an argument is weak, and where the text is unclear. This assists the editorial process without replacing it. The editor decides what to add, cull, prune, rework or even if to toss the piece out altogether.
Quotes come from recordings. What is in quotation marks is what was said. Standard editorial marks ensure clarity. We use ellipses for omissions, square brackets or parentheses where context is needed, partial quotes where a full sentence would obscure rather than reveal. If the quote is beyond resuscitation, we paraphrase the material, making sure the attribution remains.
Fact-checking is done by people. The researchers are part of the process. They can see how they have been quoted and their work characterized. They can fix factual errors that involves their work and what they said. They have no say in the rest of the writing, and will have no access to the quotes we have got from others.
Our writers are held to this. Freelancers commissioned by Truly Curious write their own drafts. Copy that appears to have been machine-generated is returned.
A note on Clever New Stuff. The trade newsletter about relevant cutting-edge applied research is from a separate division, serving a different audience and often covering research with commercial applications. The commitment to honest dissemination is the same; the process will not be. Its items will be drafted and vetted by software from published papers in peer-reviewed journals and checked before release. Editors will vet the material before it goes out.
This will change. The technology moves, and so will our practice. When it does, we will update this page and date the change rather than revise quietly.
Last updated: August 26, 2026