AI Policy

Why we're publishing this

The first version of this site was built with AI tools, and the AI was allowed to invent placeholder news: fake bylines, a fake research citation, fake interview quotes, and fake ratings attached to real cafés and shops. We removed all of it in August 2026. That happened because we didn't have a policy for what AI could and couldn't do — this page is that policy, written so it can't happen again and so readers know exactly where AI sits in how MatchaNews gets made.

What AI is used for

• Monitoring public sources — official sites, press releases, government statistics — for matcha-related news and product launches.
• Producing a first-pass draft from source material the editor has already gathered and verified.
• Translation and phrasing assistance between Japanese source material and English copy.
• Formatting a finished, human-approved article into the site's template.

What AI is never used for

• Inventing facts, statistics, studies, quotes, interviews, reviews, or ratings — including as placeholder or "illustrative" content.
• Writing as though the editor visited a place, spoke to someone, or tested a product when they didn't.
• Publishing directly, without a human reading and checking it first.

Human review and accountability

Every article carries a named human byline, and that person is responsible for checking every factual claim and source link before anything goes live — regardless of whether AI was involved in drafting it. An AI-assisted draft is a starting point, not a finished article.

Disclosure

We use AI tools in our production workflow, as described above. We're not labeling individual articles as "AI-assisted" or "human-written," because under this policy every published article is both — AI may help with research and drafting, but a human editor verifies and takes responsibility for the result. See our Editorial Policy for how that verification works in practice.

Reporting a concern

If something we've published looks off — a stat that seems wrong, a quote that seems too smooth, anything that reads like it wasn't actually checked — tell us. Contact details are in the site footer and on our Editorial Policy page. We'd genuinely rather be told.