Newcastle Eats

Policy on LLM usage / ‘generative AI’ content

It is becoming sadly necessary to address this on websites, so I’ll make it very clear.

There will be no AI content on Newcastle Eats.

All reviews, features, recommendations, images, social media — anything — published on Newcastle Eats is created entirely by humans. No generative AI tools are used in the production of any editorial content on this site — not for writing, not for editing, not for images. If you think you’re clever because you noticed I use em dashes on the site — A) you’re misinformed, and B) I’ve been using them here since 2011.

I’m crystal clear on this for Newcastle Eats, and it’s fundamental to what this website is. Every opinion here is a genuine one, formed by actually eating the food, sitting in the room, and having the experience. Claude, or whoever, simply cannot do that.

I’m not wholly anti-AI. I also run a content strategy business, so I have a professional stake in this topic, too.

I’ve watched AI reshape the industry I work in, and I have very strong views on where it adds value and where it’s used as a shortcut that ultimately disrespects the reader and their time. Newcastle Eats has always been about the opposite of that. I’ve never resorted to clickbait, leading headlines engineered to manufacture curiosity, those god awful thumbnails designed to trick you into a click. If you see my stupid face in a thumbnail, pointing at the title — CALL ME OUT ON IT. Joke: I’d never do that, it’s bloody awful, and ruining the entire internet. But what you’ll find here, is and always has been honest writing about food in Newcastle, by someone actually there.

I do use Claude to help me build the site. I’m not an expert in Javascript for example, so when it comes to technical work — code, development, and site infrastructure, it can be useful (a lot of the time, it actually isn’t, but you get the idea). You will never read a word on Newcastle Eats that was written by a machine.

For similar takes on this but more around editorial independence and how that shapes content, you can also see my Editorial Policy.

If you ever want to ask me about this directly, get in touch and I would love to talk about it.

Last reviewed: June 2026