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Political news publisher Politico unveiled a new artificial intelligence tool on Monday, the Policy Intelligence Assistant, that lets Politico Pro subscribers instantly generate detailed policy reports using data pulled exclusively from Politico reporting and analysis.
“While there are a lot of AI chatbots out there, this is not that,” said Rachel Loeffler, executive vice president and general manager of professional business, North America.
“This is a generator of millions of pieces of content in minutes for subscribers,” she continued. “In this age of efficiency, the business of government has now a mandate to be as dynamic as possible, and this is the answer to that.”
The innovation comes as news publishers grapple with how to respond to the advent of generative AI.
Some, like Dotdash Meredith and The Atlantic, have signed licensing deals with prominent AI firms, while others, like The New York Times, have sued AI companies, alleging copyright infringement. Against this backdrop, others are working to integrate AI technology into their existing offerings and experimenting with it to produce cheap content.
“It’s exciting to see publishers harnessing AI to create new products on their own terms,” said L.E.K. Consulting managing director Jeffrey Kaloski. “When used strategically, it becomes a powerful engine for revenue growth, transforming unique data into innovative offerings that open new monetization opportunities.”
Politico’s growing AI suite
The Policy Intelligence Assistant joins a growing suite of AI tools that the publisher has created for subscribers to Politico Pro, whose base plans cost between $12,000 to $15,000 per year. This product is included at no extra cost.
In December 2023, Politico’s parent company, Axel Springer, signed a licensing deal with OpenAI that lets the AI firm scrape and train on the content of its portfolio companies, including Politico. And in January 2024, the publisher unveiled an AI-enabled tool that summarizes the text of legislative bills.
But the Policy Intelligence Assistant differs from these past ventures in several ways, according to Loeffler.
First, the December licensing deal only allows OpenAI to scrape Politico’s free, ad-supported content. This new product, created in partnership with the startup Capitol AI, is trained exclusively on Politico Pro reporting and analysis, surfacing information that cannot be found using other gen AI products.
And rather than function as a chat bot or summarization tool, the Policy Intelligence Assistant generates personalized white papers using custom prompts and parameters.
For instance, from the Politico Pro dashboard subscribers can enter a prompt requesting the Policy Intelligence Assistant to compare the executive orders of former President Biden and President Trump on domestic energy policy.
The user can also set other parameters that determine the depth of the report, selecting either two minutes, five minutes, or ten minutes to indicate how long the white paper would take to present.