18BYTE publishes AI news, model intelligence, and product reviews. These are the rules we hold ourselves to. If we break one, tell us and we will correct it in public.
Sources
We prefer primary sources in this order: the company or lab making the announcement, official documentation and model cards, regulatory filings and government publications, peer reviewed research, then high quality original reporting by other outlets. Where we rely on another outlet for a fact we could not verify ourselves, we say so and link to them.
A claim without a source we could open is not a claim we publish. Where a figure could not be confirmed, we write that it is unverified rather than filling the gap.
Fact checking
Before publication, every factual claim in a story is checked against the source that supports it. Model names, version numbers, prices, dates, and company attributions are checked individually, because these are the details that go stale fastest and that readers most often act on.
Headlines and updates
Headlines describe what the source actually says. We do not write a headline that runs ahead of the evidence in the story beneath it. If a company is hiring a team to build something, the headline says that, not that the thing exists.
When a story changes materially after publication, we add a dated update note at the foot of the article and change the modified date. Fixing a typo does not earn an update note, because that would make the update history useless.
Reporting, analysis, reviews, and anything paid
Reporting states what happened and who said it. Analysis is our reading of what it means, and is labelled as such within the piece. Reviews are assessments of a product against a stated method. We currently publish no sponsored content. If we ever do, it will be labelled sponsored at the top of the page, will not be written by the editorial team, and will never be linked from a review or comparison as if it were editorial.
How AI is used in our work
We publish a separate AI Use Policy covering this in detail. In short: AI tools may assist with research, structuring, and drafting. A person selects the sources, verifies every fact, and takes responsibility for publication. We do not claim a human performed a step that was not performed.
Corrections
Our corrections policy explains how to report an error and what we do with it. The short version: email hello@18byte.com and we will fix substantive errors in public with a dated note.
Affiliate links
See our affiliate disclosure. Where a commercial relationship exists, it is disclosed on the page, and it never determines a verdict or a ranking position.
One Conductor
One Conductor is a product being built by 18BYTE Product Studio, the same company that publishes this site. That is a real conflict of interest and we treat it as one. Any story, review, or comparison that mentions One Conductor carries a disclosure. We do not place One Conductor in a comparison against products we review, and we do not rank it.