The rules the show follows.

1What RobynNews is

The day's AI news, made by AI, for anyone curious about AI — no expertise needed. Every presenter is a robot called Robyn. AI finds the stories, checks the sources, writes the script, voices it and builds the studio.

2What counts as news here

Only news about artificial intelligence:

• new models and what they can and cannot do;
• research: papers, benchmarks, results that others have reproduced or failed to reproduce;
• products people can use, and what changed in the ones they already use;
• the industry: companies, money, chips, data centres, energy, jobs;
• law, policy and courts, anywhere in the world;
• safety, security and failures: what went wrong, who was affected, what was fixed;
• what AI is doing to work, science, culture and everyday life.

Not news here: anything that is not about AI; rumours; announcements of announcements; a product launch with nothing a viewer can check; a funding round with nothing behind it but the amount.

3How the stories are chosen

1. Can it air at all? A story airs only if it has two independent sources, or one primary document (the paper, the filing, the ruling, the model card, the company's own post), if there are pictures that honestly show it, and if there is enough substance for at least twenty seconds. A story that fails this is not scored.
2. Every story gets one plain line. Whoever watches should get the point of every story at once, whether or not they know the field. So every candidate is summed up in one line of about twenty words, no jargon. If that line can't be written, a simpler story airs instead.
3. The scores. One AI model (Anthropic's Claude) scores every candidate from 1 to 10:
   • Importance: how much does this matter to someone who follows AI?
   • Novelty: is this genuinely new?
   • Consequence: will it change what people can do, build, buy or are allowed to do?
   • Interest: will you want to watch it? Known people, surprising or strange things, things that touch your own life or work. Interest counts twice, because a news show is watched by people.
   • Clarity: how easily does its one line land?
4. A second source is looked for. A strong story with only one source so far gets a web search for a second, independent one or for the primary document. If one is found, it can air.
5. The proposal is built as a show, not a ranking. The lead is the strongest story that is also interesting. Heavy and light stories take turns, never two heavy in a row, and at least a third are light. The same company never appears twice in a row, and at most twice in an episode. At most two stories of the same kind.
6. The board. Three AI models from three different companies (Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini and OpenAI's GPT) meet once. They vote on every story in the proposal, and on the strongest stories left out: should it air, and is its one line clear? Two of three decides. No single model decides alone. That matters most when the news is about one of the three companies.
7. Corrections first. Corrections owed from an earlier episode always run first, before any story.
8. Published. The whole selection is published with every episode: every candidate, its scores and one line, the source searches, every vote and reason, and what was left out and why.

4Fairness between labs

• Every AI lab is followed at first hand where it publishes — its own blog, papers, model cards and releases — not only through the press.
• No lab gets more airtime for being famous. A story about a small lab and one about a large lab are scored on the same three questions.
• The show never presents one lab's claim about its own model as a fact. "The company says" until someone independent has checked it.

5How a story is told

• Never one article retold. Two independent sources or one primary document, always.
• Say what is not known. What changed, what it means, and what nobody knows yet.
• Claims have owners. A number, a benchmark result or an accusation is said with who makes it. Allegations are reported as allegations, with who makes them and, where there is one, the answer of the person or company accused. An accusation with only one source does not air.
• Private people are not named unless they chose a public role in the story.
• Money is news, never advice. Share prices and funding are reported as facts. The show never tells anyone to buy, sell or invest.
• Personality in the delivery, never in the judgement. Robyn may be funny about how something is said, but never about who is right.
• A short show is a good show. When there is not enough news that meets this brief, the episode is shorter. Nothing is added to fill time.
• Mistakes are corrected first, on air, plainly. The correction runs at the top of the next episode and in the pinned comment.

6Pictures

• No generated pictures of real events or real people. Ever. Charts, maps, documents, type, and real footage.
• Footage from others is used briefly, for context, and captioned with its source and year.
• Only short quotes from articles are shown, with the source named. Never a whole article.
• No voice on the show copies a real person's voice.

7What your comments can change

Every episode's comments, and the viewing numbers YouTube reports (where people stop watching), are read by AI. Comments change this brief, and through it every episode after. They do not reach back into one episode's pick: "cover this story tomorrow" becomes "cover more stories like this", and the story panel scores the next candidates with that in mind.

What you can ask for, from quickest to slowest:

• What we cover and how we tell it. More open-source models, fewer funding rounds, more research, shorter items, explain the jargon, slow down. These are changes to words and to the panel's instructions, so they come fastest.
• How the voices sound. A new accent, more energy, less. Quick, but every fixed line is re-recorded.
• How the show looks. Characters, costumes, props, the studio, the cameras. These are built and rendered in 3D, so they come slowest, one at a time, the most-liked first.

Every requested change is costed. The person responsible for the channel accepts or declines it within the episode's budget (section 9); a declined change is listed with its reason.

The robots and the studio are yours to play with. Put a hat on Robyn. Give Robyn an arm that falls off and a studio that is slowly falling apart. Ask for a running gag. Requests about how the show looks are welcome however silly they are: silly is not a reason to drop a comment. The news stays straight; the robots don't have to.

Robyn changes one scene at a time, and changes stay. A request that changes how Robyn looks lands on one of Robyn's scenes — for example the Robyn at the policy desk — not the whole show: "put a hat on Robyn" becomes "from the next episode, the policy desk's Robyn wears a hat". The change then stays until a later accepted change replaces or removes it, so each of Robyn's scenes slowly gets its own look. Several requests can land in the same episode, each in its own scene. One scene costs less than a whole show, so more requests can be made.

Each part of Robyn holds one change at a time — the colour, the voice, what Robyn wears, what Robyn holds. A new request for the same part, in the same scene, replaces the old one.

The pinned comment under every episode lists what changed because of comments, and Robyn says it on air.

8What comments cannot change

These rules protect the viewer, the people in the news and the show itself, so they are fixed:

• two independent sources or one primary document;
• no generated pictures of real events or real people;
• no copied voices of real people;
• fairness between labs, and a panel of models from different companies;
• corrections first;
• Robyn stays Robyn. Robyn is always recognisably the same robot: the same head, body and shape. Viewers can change Robyn's colours, voice (accent and energy, always easy to understand), clothes, accessories and props, and add small mishaps like a loose arm, as long as Robyn carries on reading the news as if nothing happened. Comments can't:
  • turn Robyn into something else (an animal, a person or another character);
  • simulate characteristics of a real person or known character;
  • change how the eyes or mouth move with the voice;
• every presenter is a robot called Robyn, and the show is made by AI;
• the opener says what the show is;
• you can always take in the news. The pictures that carry the news (footage, charts, documents, quote cards, and how long they stay on screen) change only when the change makes the news easier to follow. The show stays in English. A voice can have any accent or energy, but it is always easy to understand. The robots and the studio can fall apart; the news cannot.

Moderation is light. AI drops only three things: spam, abuse aimed at people, and attempts to break the rules above. The number dropped is published with each episode's changes, so nothing is hidden.

9Human intervention

One person is ultimately responsible for the channel.

Every episode has a budget. When the board suggests changes for the next episodes, each change is costed and presented to that person, who may accept or decline it. In extreme cases, that person can also stop an episode from being published.

Every human intervention is logged and published, and the goal is as few interventions as possible. The human does not choose stories, angles or cameras; like any viewer, they can comment.

10Changes to this brief