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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND NOVA ARC: UNDERSTAND BROADLY, TREAD LIGHTLY

Our AI strategy and policy

Because our core values focus on accuracy, inclusivity, and sustainability, we at Nova Arc avoid using artificial intelligence, and if a situation requires its use, we do so sparingly, thoughtfully, and intentionally. 

As With All Things, Balance Is Key

We recognize the value AI can bring, we understand the need to be informed and educated users of technology, and we embrace innovation and the ability it has to improve lives. We also recognize that all new technologies have speedbumps to integration and to realizing their full potential. We encourage and practice educated use, diligent research, and stringent guidelines to ensure data and personal safety. 

Accuracy Matters

Accuracy matters, particularly in our focus areas: aerospace, science, and defense. Incorrect information can lead to errors that cost thousands or even millions of dollars to correct or can imperil people’s safety or lives. As the United Nations University says, “When accuracy is confused with truth, there is a high risk of harm, especially in fields where human judgment and ethical considerations are critical.” 

Importantly, the large language models AI uses draw on past published information, perhaps plagiarized itself. So, AI content isn’t born of original thought, and we want freshness. And, in our experience, AI is hopeless at nuance. 

As people, we see shades of meaning and orders of priority that AI cannot. As one European Law Blog post says, large language models build text by stacking likely word sequences they saw in training; they don’t read and comprehend the way people do. “In other words, their ‘truth’ is the statistical one, not reality as we conceive it.”

Inclusive, Sustainably Created Copy 

AI models unintentionally discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, and demographics. When AI must be used, our staff vigilantly researches and works to avoid these biases.

AI also uses copious energy; some research estimates that one AI chatbot conversation can cost about one 16-ounce single-serve bottle of water to cool the servers that run the AI systems and power plants that electrify them. Environmental advocates have said that data centers are often among the heaviest water users in their towns. The Washington Post estimated that a once-weekly 100-word AI-generated email by 10% of working U.S. residents would require about 115 million gallons of water.

As humans, we evaluate the copy on the page to ensure it accurately reflects the needs, audience, tone, and goals—and does so while using inclusive, conscious language and actively working to identify and root out the implicit biases and negative implications that can exist in the words people use. We use human ingenuity (powered by caffeine and biological levels of hydration) to deliver content and copy that meets clients’ needs while striving to support a cleaner, more sustainable world. 

Human-Crafted Copy: Accurate and Copyrightable

Beyond care for environment and inclusiveness, Nova Arc limits AI because our work is for people, by people. As Jay Caspian Kang once wrote in The New Yorker, people read partly “to see the self in another self, or even to just see what other people are capable of creating.” And we agree with the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute’s manifesto, which says, “We believe in the power of language, images and videos to educate, influence, and affect change.”

Crafting and delivering only human-written copy keeps it copyrightable and more accurate. Researchers have found frequent instances of fabricated or errant information presented as truth (these fact lapses are called hallucinations). 

Equipped to Use AI

We acknowledge and celebrate that we live in a technological world. Technology brings many helpful, awe-inspiring, and even empowering advances, and we diligently endeavor to stay current and informed. We educate ourselves so we can use new tools wisely and effectively, including AI. 

How we might use AI:

  • Outlining and brainstorming. We may use AI as a brainstorming device, to draft preliminary questions, or to generate outline suggestions. As always, we evaluate, review, revise, and rewrite.
  • Summarizing and transcribing. Given our clients’ consent, we may use AI tools to record conversations and transcribe audio into a text transcript. These transcriptions are never perfect; we review them and annotate them ourselves.  

If Nova Arc uses AI, staff members will name the tools they used and explain how they used them. In our toolbelts are ChatGPT 5, Claude, Gemini, Otter.ai, and WebFX readability assessor.

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