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About Us
IEEE Spectrum is an award-winning technology magazine and the flagship publication of the IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and the applied sciences. With roots going back to 1884, the IEEE organizes research conferences, publishes engineering journals, and is responsible for major technology standards, including most famously Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Spectrum's mission has remained the same since its founding in 1964: Our charter is to keep the public and over 500,000 IEEE Members informed about major trends and developments in technology, engineering, and science. Our news stories, features, special reports, podcasts, videos, and infographics engage our readers with clear explanations about emerging concepts and developments with details they can’t get elsewhere.
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IEEE Spectrum’s Statement on Generative AI
As technology journalists, we see the potential of generative AI but remain cautious of its misuse. IEEE Spectrum’s readers trust us to provide accurate news and analysis filtered through the expert brains of our writers and editors, and we will always act to preserve that trust. We value human creativity, deep reporting, insightful analysis, and getting things right. We also value the creative industries and will continue to support them by hiring writers and artists to contribute to our publication.
Writing and Editing: All Spectrum articles are reported, written, edited, and fact-checked by humans. Although our writers may use AI in the ideation and research stage, whether to help find story ideas or assist in background research, a human always verifies the facts and approves the final content to ensure accuracy and editorial integrity. We may also experiment with using AI to enhance the user experience—for instance, to summarize passages or entire articles—but any such AI-generated content will be clearly labeled. Additionally, we may use AI tools for transcribing and summarizing interviews as well as suggesting headlines, SEO descriptions, and social media blurbs. All final decisions on what we publish are made by humans.
IEEE Spectrum also publishes paid, or sponsored, content provided by advertisers or our advertising partner, Wiley. Advertisers must disclose any use of generative AI in creating sponsored content; this use will be labeled on the articles.
Video and Audio: Our original audio and videos will not include AI-generated or AI-modified footage or audio unless that material is explicitly labeled. AI tools may assist with video concept development or video editing, but humans oversee and approve the final product. We may also explore other ways of using AI tools. When sharing third-party videos, we will make efforts to determine and disclose any AI involvement (within the video, in the description, or by other means).
Images: IEEE Spectrum prioritizes human-created visuals and generally avoids publishing AI-generated images. Exceptions include stories directly covering AI-generated imagery and stories in which researchers used AI-generated imagery as a key part of their work; in those cases, such images will be clearly labeled. We may also use AI-image generation as a behind-the-scenes technique for concepting and brainstorming visuals. Additionally, we receive many press images for our news content, and while we make every effort to verify sources, we cannot guarantee that the provided art was not AI-generated. We stand behind our commitment to hire artists and support the real-world creative community in our image selection process.
This statement is a living document that we will update as the technology evolves, regulations change, and new uses for the technology are found that fit within our ethical and professional guidelines.