(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Unionized Journalists employed at POLITICO and E&E News (The PEN Guild) have secured a major victory in their arbitration case against POLITICO management over the company’s unilateral introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that bypassed negotiated safeguards and undermined core journalistic standards.

In a detailed decision, the arbitrator found POLITICO violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it launched two AI-driven products - a “Live Summaries” feature used during the 2024 Democratic National Convention and Vice Presidential Debate, and the Capitol AI Report-Builder tool for POLITICO Pro subscribers - without providing required notice, bargaining, or human oversight, as required by the contract.

This case marks one of the Nation’s first major Labor-arbitration rulings addressing the impact of AI on Journalists’ work, setting an important precedent for the entire U.S. News Industry.

“This ruling is a clear affirmation that AI cannot be deployed as a shortcut around Union Rights, ethical journalism or human judgment,” Unit Chair Ariel Wittenberg said. “This is a win for our Members at POLITICO fighting to ensure AI strengthens our newsroom rather than undermining it.”

During negotiations for a first Union contract, PEN Guild pushed for proactive protections against job loss and erosion of journalistic standards from AI-generated content.

The resulting AI article requires the company to give 60 days notice and engage in good-faith bargaining before introducing new AI tools that substantively materially impact job duties or could lead to layoffs.

It also requires any AI used in newsgathering must comply with POLITICO’s own ethical standards and include human oversight.

The arbitrator concluded that POLITICO ignored these obligations. 

The arbitrator found: Live Summaries were posted in prime “above-the-scroll” homepage placements without human editing, outside the normal content system, and were not corrected despite containing factual errors, missing context, and violations of POLITICO’s Stylebook; Capitol AI Report-Builder generated 500-word reports, complete with headlines and citations to journalists’ bylined work, without any editorial review, despite containing “glaring errors” and misinterpretations that would not meet newsroom standards.

In both cases, POLITICO failed to give the Guild required notice or opportunity to bargain.

He ruled: “If the goal is speed and the cost is accuracy and accountability, AI is the clear winner. If accuracy and accountability is the baseline, then AI, as used in these instances, cannot yet rival the hallmarks of human output, which are accuracy and reliability.”

“This decision makes it clear that Unionized Journalists are the ones fighting for accurate news when companies roll out AI spreading misinformation,” NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss said. “Journalists, by Unionizing and demanding quality for their readers, are negotiating stronger ethics, accountability and actual humans producing the news. This ruling is a strong message to every media boss: AI must be implemented responsibly, transparently and through negotiation with Journalists.”

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