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In a newsletter yesterday, the Poynter Institute highlighted its updated “AI ethics guidelines: A starter kit for newsrooms.” At about the same time, the CBC’s News Editor’s Blog posted “How CBC News will use AI responsibly to benefit our journalism — and keep your trust.”
Is there an emoji of the Halifax Examiner publisher banging his head against his desk? Because that’s what he’s doing right now.
The first problem with such documents is that they usually don’t define ‘AI.’ (The Poynter document for newsrooms makes a stab at defining it, but its public-facing document does not). As I wrote in the first essay of this month-long series exploring AI, “As practiced, ‘artificial intelligence’ means ‘the computer does something cool,’ which is not at all useful.”
The vague term ‘AI’ and the accompanying confusion is purposeful; it’s conflating quite useful computer tools with problematic and unethical generative processes in order to make it difficult to draw distinctions between the two. The tech industry is creating this confusion as PR, to promote investment into companies that primarily use generative AI programs, companies like OpenAI, the producer of ChatGPT.
And so there’s a hype machine that uses ‘AI’ as a buzz term to mean whatever the hell anyone wants it to mean. And the hype machine is relentless.
As I’ll explain below, the Examiner uses some software programs that are (incorrectly, in my view) labelled ‘AI,’ like for instance, the Trint transcription service. We make the service available to any reporter who wants to use it (it’s not a requirement for any reporter to use it).
Personally, I find it useful. I can plug a recording of an interview into Trint, then do a word search to find a particular passage I remember; I then listen to that portion of the recording, and fix the errors in the transcription (there are always errors), and use the final text in the article I’m writing. It saves me time.
This morning, my colleague Yvette d’Entremont pointed me to a survey that Trint is asking subscribers to its service to fill out.
Question 6 is the following:
Note that “fuck this shit” is not an option. The survey is the equivalent of a push poll: the questions are designed to produce only one ‘correct’ answer, which is that ‘my org is totally into the AI project.’
But I suppose since everyone else is doing it, I need to clearly define the Halifax Examiner’s policies around whatever the hell ‘AI’ means.
The Examiner is all about transparency — we publish our tax returns so readers know exactly where their subscriber dollars are going, and so we can justify our existence. So in that spirit, I’m making the following public:
#### The Halifax Examiner’s policies regarding computer programs
As with everything the Examiner does, the foremost concern for use of computer programs is the environmental and social impact of our work. Put simply, if using a technology causes more harm than the expected value of the work, we should not use that technology.
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While a complete knowledge of all tools is beyond any one person’s ability, we should have some understanding of what any technology does and what its environmental and social impacts are. Before using a tool, there should be consideration about its potential harms. This should always be top of mind.
**Generative AI**
The environmental impact of large language models and photo and video generative AI programs is enormous, and the psychological impact on people training such generative AI programs should be considered criminal. As such, we will not use generative AI programs to produce text or photos.
There is one exception to the blanket ban on publishing AI-generated material: We might point to such AI-generated text and photos as subjects of our reporting. For example, a public agency or corporation using an AI-generated photo in a way that causes harm is of course worth reporting on, and it may be helpful to readers to include that photo in the article. Any such photo or text that is used in this fashion will clearly be labelled such that the reader understands that context.
However, all such use of AI-generated text or images as the subject of legitimate reporting must be approved by the publisher.
**Respecting intellectual work**
Reporting is intellectual work. It involves people using their talents, skills, and training to provide value to the larger society. As such, we will respect both ends of that work.
Recognizing that generative AI programs are trained on the stolen, often copyright protected, work of writers, photographers, and artists, we will be cognizant that our use of such work is also an act of thievery. Just as we shouldn’t directly plagiarize the work of other people, neither should we use computer tools that indirectly plagiarize the work of other people. Using an intermediary computer program does not justify theft.
On the other end of the reporting process, we must respect our own talents, skills, and abilities. Reading a document to understand it is intellectual work; using a computer tool to summarize the document is not. There is value in using our own minds to understand and learn that goes beyond any single document, and thinking about what we are reporting on informs and improves the entire body of our work across our careers.
**What computer programs we can and cannot use**
Because a vaguely defined ‘AI’ is inserted into so many computer programs, it is difficult and perhaps impossible to know exactly what environmental and social harms any particular program produces, nor what theft of intellectual property is involved, But with careful consideration, we can create a list of programs that are acceptable and unacceptable for use at the Examiner.
This list will change as more programs are created, and as programs evolve, and as we examine and consider each tool (some tools are still being considered):
Unacceptable for any purpose at the Examiner:
ChatGPT
Claude
Perplexity
Sora and other video generating tools
DALL-E 3 and other image generating tools
Acceptable programs, with caveats*:
Trint, Otter, and other transcription tools
Google Translate and other translation tools
Google Pinpoint
* The caveat is that the reporters must insert themselves in the project. So it’s not acceptable to simply copy and paste computer program-generated transcription into an article; rather, the reporter must listen to the actual audio to make sure the generated text is accurate.
A reporter may not be capable of checking text translated from another language, but care should be taken to make sure the translation is reasonably accurate. For in-depth investigatory articles, such translations should be checked by a native language speaker. All such translations should be labelled as such — “as translated by Google Translate,” for example.
Programs that analyze large data sets like academic articles and databases can be extremely useful, but the reporter must always back up and consider the results. Are they cherrypicking data to come to an inaccurate or unfair conclusion? Is the generated result representative of the whole dataset, or a few exceptions? The context of those larger questions must be conveyed in the reporting.
**Responsibility**
The Examiner must have the trust of its readers. Readers must know that care is put into reporting, and that the reporting reflects the skills of the reporter. This is true for any published article, and it’s even more true for reporting that relies on the work of computer programs.
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November is the Halifax Examiner’s subscription drive. All this month, we are writing essays and stories about AI. Click here to read other stories and commentaries in our series.
(It’s both frustrating and kind of funny that some readers thought the images Iris has created to illustrate these articles were created with AI tools. No. I assure you that Iris is putting her skills to use and creating these images herself).
If you value the Halifax Examiner, please consider valuing it with your money by subscribing or dropping us a one-time donation. You can subscribe here, or drop us a donation here.
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## NOTICED
## **Out of service: HRM as landlord**
Credit: Jennifer Henderson Credit: Jennifer Henderson
_This item is written by Jennifer Henderson._
The signs above, posted at Alderney Landing next to the ferry entrance on the Dartmouth waterfront, are not a bad joke. They’re real.
Alderney Landing is a building owned by the Halifax Regional Municipality. It includes a library, municipal offices, a theatre, an art gallery, and a weekend market. The complex was built in 1999, and the elevator in question (located next to the area where passengers enter and exit the harbour ferry) has provided intermittent service since last spring. That’s six months.
Despite several repairs, the elevator remains dodgy. The building’s tenant on the second floor is The Wooden Monkey restaurant. Owner Lil MacPherson said as the months have dragged on, she’s noticed an increase in cancellations among her regular customers who use walkers or wheelchairs.
“They are scared to use the elevator, and they can’t take the outdoor staircase off the patio when the elevator breaks down,” MacPherson told the Examiner. “As the weather turns cold, the situation is also affecting bookings for Christmas parties.”
MacPherson, who pays rent to HRM, believes it’s time for the landlord to replace the elevator because the many temporary fixes still have not resolved the issue.
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## RECENTLY IN THE HALIFAX EXAMINER:
### Nova Scotia Power president promises ‘fix’ for thousands of customers
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg addresses the Nov. 25, 2025 standing committee on natural resources and economic development. Credit: Nova Scotia Legislature video
Jennifer Henderson reports:
> Nova Scotia Power president and CEO Peter Gregg was summoned to appear before the legislature’s natural resources and economic development committee on Tuesday to answer questions about the rising tide of concerns Nova Scotians are voicing about their power bills.
>
> …
>
> Continuing in a conciliatory vein, Gregg said “My promise to you is if we have overestimated your bill, we will fix it. If you have overpaid, we will fix it. If we have made a mistake, we will fix it.”
>
> Nova Scotia Power expects it will take several more months before the company’s computerized information systems are fully restored. For the first time, Gregg said the ongoing investigation into the cyberattack points to “a Russian-based threat actor group” as the culprit.
Click or tap here to read “Nova Scotia Power president promises ‘fix’ for thousands of customers.”
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* * *
### **Government**
#### **City**
Wednesday
**Grants Committee** (Wednesday, 10am, online) — agenda
**Heritage Advisory Committee** (Wednesday, 3pm, online) — agenda
**Regional Centre Community Council** (Wednesday, 6pm, online) — agenda
Thursday
**Transportation Standing Committee** (Thursday, 1pm, City Hall) — agenda
#### **Province**
No meetings
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### **On campus**
#### **Dalhousie**
Wednesday
**Noon Hour Free Live Music Series: Voice**(Wednesday, 11:45am, details)
**Noon Hour Free Live Music Series: Woodwinds** (Wednesday, 11:45am, details)
Thursday
**Group Read – Reclaiming Power + Place: The Final Report** (Thursday, 12pm, hybrid)
**Physiology and Biophysics Seminar Series** (Thursday, 1pm, details) — Kazue Semba will present “Astrocytic remodeling at synapses as a possible cellular mechanism for sleep homeostasis”
**The Human-Powered City: Building Sustainable Communities, One Ride at a Time** (Thursday, 7:15pm, hybrid) — presented by Lanrick Bennett Jr., from the School of Cities, Toronto, and Toronto’s first Bicycle Mayor
* * *
### Literary Events
Wednesday
**November MFA Author Talk**(Wednesday, 7pm, Halifax Central Library) — Emma Kuzmyk will discuss _This Wasn’t on the Syllabus: Stories from the Front Lines of Campus Activism Against Sexualized Violence_
**Book Launch** (Wednesday, 7pm, Halifax Central Library) — Alan Doyle’s _The Smiling Land_
Thursday
**SMU Reading Series: An evening with Kate Cayley** (Thursday, 7pm, details) — poet reads from her new book _Property_
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### **In the harbour**
**Halifax**
05:30: **Oceanex Sanderling** , ro-ro container, arrives at Fairview Cove from St. John’s
06:00: **Algoma Acadian** , oil tanker, arrives at Irving Oil from Saint John
10:00: **APL Southampton**, container ship, sails from Pier 41 for New York
15:00: **Box Endurance** , container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from New York
15:30: **MSC Donata**, container ship, sails from Pier 42 for sea
16:30: **Oceanex Sanderling** moves to Autoport
17:15: **Nolhan Ava**, ro-ro cargo, arrives at Pier 41 from Saint-Pierre
**Cape Breton**
10:00: **Ionic Semeli** , oil tanker, arrives at EverWind from Fast4ward Offshore Terminal, Bahama
11:00: **CSL Tacoma** , bulker, sails from Coal Pier (Sydney) for sea
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### **Footnotes**
I’m still on the road, so a slim Morning File today.
* * * https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file/heres-the-halifax-examiners-ai-policy/
