The Independent has embraced new technology from the moment we launched in 1986, never more so than when we became the first major newspaper to switch to being a fully digital publisher in 2016. Today we continue our mission to be the most trusted and influential news title. So, of course, we embrace AI as a natural fit to future-proof us, which is why we have been testing AI tools since 2023.

We are now ready to put AI to work while carefully ensuring we always address three crucial goals: firstly, to improve and safeguard our trusted and truly independent journalism; secondly, to better serve our growing and loyal global audience; and finally, to provide innovative tools to empower our journalists.

Our journalists have played a vital role in developing our plans for how we should use AI, so we have one golden rule: every time we use AI, even in minor ways, the output must be signed off by a human editor.

At The Independent, we hope our highly skilled journalists will increasingly spend more time doing what journalists do best: investigating, reporting, fact-checking, analysing and debating.

So we will develop our own unique AI tools that cut down laborious processes and liberate our hard-working people to do more journalism. To repeat: any content that was created with the use of AI will be checked by journalists prior to publication. Not every publisher will have our gold standard, but we will not take shortcuts or abuse trust while we embrace a technology which will free us to do more of what we do best: world-class, truly independent journalism.