The news site 'The Wire,' which criticizes anti-AI, has been accused of receiving funding from 'Leading The Future,' a political group supported by OpenAI.
Model Republic, an organization that investigates AI companies and policies, has alleged that most of the articles on
The producers at this news site are AI bots. OpenAI's super PAC appears to be funding it. - Model Republic
https://www.modelrepublic.org/articles/the-reporters-at-this-news-site-are-ai-bots.-openai%E2%80%99s-super-pac-appears-to-be-using-it-to-advance-its-political-agenda
Model Republic's investigation into The Wire began when an email sent from The Wire to the non-profit organization Encode was shared with a Model Republic reporter. The email contained suspicious elements, and a search for the alleged sender yielded no relevant information.
The Wire is an anonymously run news site that, in less than four months since its launch on December 29, 2025, has published 94 lengthy articles on topics such as AI policy, Senate elections, pharmacy reform, nuclear energy, and cryptocurrency regulation. However, it offers no explanation whatsoever about who runs it or how it came to be.
Model Republic analyzed articles using 'Pangram,' an AI detection tool that boasts a near-zero false positive rate. The analysis revealed that 69% of the 94 articles were determined to be entirely AI-generated, and another 28% were partially AI-generated. Only three articles were classified as being written by humans.
The evidence wasn't limited to the AI detection tool; it was also found in the source code. According to Model Republic, a form for creating new articles was found in the source code, which contained text prompting users to enter 'background information that the AI will use when generating questions and writing the article.' In another location, there was a section for writing 'questions for the AI interviewer to ask.' It is suspected that someone was using this form to automatically generate articles.
Furthermore, upon examining The Wire's API, it was discovered that they also offer a feature where AI identifies problems and suggests corrections. Whether due to this feature or not, 42 out of 94 articles were marked as 'needs correction' under the 'automatic review' checkbox, yet all of them were published.
One of the articles included a comment from a professor at Harvard Business School. Other articles quoted comments from anonymous sources, including Republican staff and industry insiders, but there were also instances where comments from other news sites were plagiarized.
Almost no information about The Wire was found in Google searches, and it was only linked to four times on X by relatively unknown accounts. However, two of those links were made by a man named Patrick Hines. Mr. Hines is the president of Novus Public Affairs, a Republican-affiliated PR firm. Model Republic suspects that Mr. Hines is behind The Wire.
One reason is that Mr. Hines is based in New Hampshire, and The Wire has many articles related to New Hampshire.
Another point is the overlap between Novus Public Affairs' work and The Wire's articles. For example, 10 days before President Donald Trump signed a major reform bill for pharmacy benefit managers, The Wire published an article criticizing the problems plaguing these companies. The pharmaceutical industry association PhRMA, which spent a large amount of money lobbying to push through this reform, is a client of Novus Public Affairs, and the source log within the article recorded it as a 'statement from PhRMA.'
The Wire also publishes articles that criticize anti-AI sentiment. In one article, it criticizes comments made by AI safety advocate John Sherman on his podcast suggesting that 'people will burn down data centers if they understand the risks of AI.' However, instead of simply reporting the comment, the article lists all of the clients of Sherman's video production and consulting company and reports that it 'contacted each organization to ask if they were aware of Sherman's comments and whether they intend to continue their relationship with his company.' The article states that all organizations refused to comment, but that one company 'suggested that it had privately ended its relationship.'
A look at Acutus's AI-related reporting reveals that approximately 15% of its articles deal with AI, and many of them share arguments with companies opposed to AI regulation. Model Republic pointed out that 'more than a third of The Wire's articles look more like advocacy for specific interest groups than journalism.'
Furthermore, many of the articles align with the claims of 'Leading The Future,' a political organization (super PAC) primarily funded by OpenAI CEO Greg Brockmann and OpenAI investor Andreessen Horowitz, and founded under the leadership of OpenAI's chief political operator Chris Lehan. Given that 'Targeted Victory,' a Republican-affiliated consulting firm that forms the core of OpenAI's political organization, is a client of Novus Public Affairs, Model Republic argues that 'OpenAI's super PAC may be using The Wire to promote its political agenda while posing as independent journalism.'
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