Published August 18, 2026

As a media company founded by two arts journalists, and now owned by a team of longtime employees that includes writers, editors and graphic designers, Seven Days values writing and artwork done by humans. We’re also aware that artificial intelligence tools can help our reporting and save valuable time and resources.

We’ve crafted this policy to be transparent about how we use AI and to hold ourselves accountable to our readers. 

Though we’re finding ways to incorporate AI tools under the hood of the car, we can assure you that humans will always be in the driver’s seat. And when it comes to our journalism, you can count on us to be up front with you about how we’re getting from point A to point B.

Prohibited Uses of AI-Generated Text

  • Seven Days staff and freelance contributors will not use AI to compose articles or packaging elements including headlines. A story published under a writer’s byline is that person’s own work. We view submitting AI-generated articles as a serious ethical violation, equivalent to plagiarism, a fireable offense. 
  • We will not use AI chatbots or search summaries for fact-checking, as these tools are prone to errors.

Prohibited Uses of AI-Generated Imagery

  • We will not use photorealistic AI-created depictions of people, places or events in editorial content — unless that content is the subject of a story, as in this article about a campaign ad targeting Rep. Becca Balint. In such cases, the image will be clearly labeled as something AI generated.
  • We will strongly discourage advertisers from submitting advertising materials designed by AI.

Acceptable Uses of AI

Reporting and Research

Seven Days journalists use transcription and recording software such as Otter.ai. This allows us to capture interviews accurately and spend more time on the craft of writing, though we will not pull quotes from AI-generated transcripts without a human checking the audio. Writers can use AI-backed tools to assist in their reporting — for example to monitor websites for updates or analyze documents and other data. Reporters will verify all facts independently, as they would with any source. Seven Days will not publish anything without human oversight.

Listings

Writers and editors may use AI tools to assist with the task of generating listings, such as those appearing in the Seven Days calendar. A staff writer reviews and edits each AI-assisted entry for accuracy, tone and Seven Days style before publication. A proofreader also reviews all listings prior to publishing in print. When AI is used in this way, we say so clearly — for example, here is the disclaimer that appears in the calendar section each week:

Seven Days’ calendar writer selects and writes calendar spotlights. To help process the hundreds of event submissions we receive each week, some listings are compiled with the help of AI. The calendar writer reviews, edits and verifies every entry before publication.

Creating Website Elements

Seven Days’ digital team is experimenting with using AI tools to create online elements that would otherwise be time-consuming and prohibitively expensive to build. For example, an intern used Claude to “vibe code” the leaderboard for the Good Citizen Challenge, which tracks participants’ progress. We disclosed this usage on the Challenge website. 

Administrative Tasks

Seven Days’ administrative staff may use AI tools to perform a variety of tasks, such as researching and writing grant applications and reports and analyzing financial data. They may use AI tools to automate tasks unrelated to journalism to increase efficiency and accuracy.

Imagery

AI tools are now baked into the Adobe software that our graphic designers use to lay out Seven Days publications. Designers may use these AI tools to modify backgrounds or to create abstract visual elements.  

If staff members aren’t able to provide photos, Seven Days prioritizes hiring local photographers and illustrators or using stock or file photos to provide imagery. In rare circumstances, designers may use AI to generate conceptual images — but only when a human conceives the idea and the image would be difficult to produce otherwise. 

We will always disclose when we use AI to generate images — all AI-generated images used for editorial purposes must include a credit to the designer who created the prompt and the name of the tool used. 

Our March 19, 2025, cover for “Vermont’s Hangover,” which depicted a cocktail glass spilling its contents in the shape of the state of Vermont, carried this credit: Image generated with Google Gemini AI by Diane Sullivan.

Freelancers and Outside Contributors

This policy applies to all work published in Seven Days. When we receive images or other content from outside sources, we ask whether AI tools were used in their creation. If so, the same standards of disclosure apply.

Updates

Because AI tools are changing rapidly, we view this as a living document that will be updated as new systems and standards evolve.