Given there are millions of government webpages with more than a billion views each month, it is a daunting goal to try to summarize that content and keep it updated.
We use AI to prioritize content and approach this goal at scale, and we increasingly involve human editors to add value to this content.
Our readers want to better understand and navigate government. They also want to use these operational and policy insights to act on the issues that matter most to them – among others, safety, taxes, affordability, and personal rights and protections.
Topic Selection
We are steadily working on content to explain common questions around each federal government agency and program. We brainstorm topics and angles using AI products. We also consider popular content on federal websites as well as public references like analytics.usa.gov.
As new topics come into the public discussion, we consider whether there is an angle for in-depth resources that explain key issues or give helpful background.
When readers suggest topics, we also consider if and how we might be able to frame new articles in ways that are interesting to a broad group of readers.
AI Research
We use AI products (currently, our preference is Deep Research using Gemini 3 Pro) to develop long-form article drafts. Among other prompts, we instruct Gemini to provide a nonpartisan and thorough explainer to the given topic so our content can be unbiased and trustworthy.
We use AI products (currently, our preference is Claude using Sonnet 4.5) to synthesize this content. Typically, this step cuts down the length of content by more than half, makes it more readable, and better formats it for the web.
We provide a review of content before it goes live to make sure it is properly formatted, reads well, and contains updated links.
Editorial Review
AI is remarkable. But with the steady growth in our website traffic, we have been especially fortunate to bring onboard several talented people for editorial roles.
After content has been drafted, our editors invest additional time to review resources and ensure they are up-to-date, useful, and unbiased. Content that has undergone this additional review process is updated with credit to the editor.