POLITICO to shut down AI tools at center of “landmark arbitration” with PEN Guild, states release

The POLITICO and E&E News Guild (PEN Guild) members earned, states a release, “a resounding final victory in one of the most significant labor-AI disputes in American journalism: following months of negotiations between PEN Guild leadership, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG), and POLITICO management, the company has agreed to shut down both artificial intelligence products at the heart of last November’s landmark arbitration ruling.

“POLITICO will shut down Capitol AI Report-Builder, a tool that produced branded policy reports for POLITICO Pro subscribers without any editorial review, despite generating glaring factual errors. It also will not revive the “Live Summaries” AI feature, which generated error-riddled unedited coverage of major political events, including the 2024 Democratic National Convention and Vice Presidential Debate. Both uses were found by an arbitrator in November 2025 to have violated PEN Guild’s collective bargaining agreement.”

“This is an extraordinary win not just for our members, but for everyone who believes journalism must remain in human hands,” said Ariel Wittenberg, PEN Guild chair. “We refused to back down, and POLITICO heard us loud and clear that these tools do not belong in our newsroom.”