How we can use AI to reclaim the Fourth Estate — and democracy

When journalism had guardrails — professional journalists with integrity, strict ethics and mechanisms to remove those who broke the rules — everyone benefited. Society was informed, truth had a structure and democracy had a chance.

That was Aaron Sorkin’s message in The Newsroom — first in Jeff Daniels’ opening monologue (“Why America Isn’t the Greatest Country Anymore”), and again later in the Realist vs. Idealist exchange. Both scenes capture what we’ve lost: the idea that information should serve the public good, not the algorithm.

Today, those guardrails are gone. The internet hijacked the revenue model that funded journalism. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok call themselves “media,” but they’re not. They’re megaphones for anyone chasing attention, regardless of truth or consequence. And we’re all paying the price.

The same thing is happening with AI.

There are no standards. No ethics. Just hype, hallucination and profit. The hype merchants are in charge — and they’re generating AI slop.

A professor of mine once said: “Art is not democratic.”

He didn’t mean that art should be exclusive. He meant that artists should not be ruled by popularity — not by trends, not by algorithms, not even by applause. Art is not meant to appeal to everyone. It’s meant to reach for truth, not approval.

That’s how I feel about AI.

Everyone can use it, but not everyone should be shaping it.

Because when innovation starts serving popularity instead of principle, it stops being art — and starts being noise.

AI needs the same kind of guardrails journalism once had: governance, provenance and accountability built into the system, not pasted on top.

So I propose that all LLMs adopt a two-tiered system:

1. A public-facing AI available to everyone, but strictly controlled at the systemic level to block attempts at deep fakes and abuse, and…
2. A second, metered, full-featured AI only available to companies and organizations who understand governance and respect provenance.

That’s why I’ve filed a series of patents that make those principles enforceable at the architectural level. I’m starting with a proof of concept: fixing online dating — a nearly universal experience that’s broken for everyone.

If I can use AI to fix that, then I can show others how they can use AI to fix anything.

When it works, I plan to use the proceeds of those patents to fund a 501(c)(3) dedicated to saving journalism — rebuilding the ethical backbone that used to hold democracy together.

Because democracy needs truth.

When I worked at The Virginian-Pilot, I walked past these words, every day, carved in marble, written by Thomas Jefferson: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”