About One Big Story
What does journalism look like in the AI age?
We live in a time of radical information overabundance. Every day, billions of headlines, posts, videos, alerts, and ads compete for our attention — content designed less to inform and more to sell, influence, and addict.
Artificial intelligence accelerates this trend, enabling mass production of low-cost content at unprecedented scale — what many now call "AI slop." The result is an internet that grows noisier by the day, making it harder — not easier — to find what actually matters.
One Big Story exists to counter that trend. Instead of using AI to produce more content, we use multiple models and specialized prompts to filter the content that already exists — identifying the single most important story on Earth each day, delivered across the four major formats: text, audio, video, and chatbot.
A Publication That Adapts to You
Information is power, and everyone deserves to be well informed about the world. But we’re all different — each of us has our own priorities and preferences. Also, our lives and schedules change from day to day. Not everyone can read a well-reported news article when it comes out, no matter how important the story is. Sometimes, we only have the time or energy for a quick headline and summary.
Others want a deeply researched longform article with historical context. Some people prefer audio. Many of us prefer video. And some people even want to ask follow-up questions and have a dialogue about the news with an informed and up-to-date expert.
Because AI reduces the cost and time to produce all of these content types, the same news story can now dynamically expand or contract to whatever length is best for an individual user, and even instantly transform into another format at their request — with relevant, timely, personalized information added or removed at will.
In the AI era, all information is liquid and can be moved easily to different containers, taking on whatever shape the user desires or requires.
This is the fundamental insight at the heart of One Big Story: AI can be used to reimagine the news without adding more noise, clutter, and distraction to our lives. Instead of flooding the zone with more content, it can be used to focus our attention on what matters most. It uses the latest tech to sort and personalize information at scale, while retaining the fundamental bedrock of journalism — on-the-ground reporting by human journalists and human editorial expertise. Instead of trapping us each in our own individualized social media “filter bubbles,” One Big Story offers us a path back to a more shared, communal sense of reality: the same set of facts delivered in whatever format best suits our busy lives.
This makes One Big Story the first news publication designed to adapt to its audience’s needs and wants — rather than forcing its audience to adapt to it.
Built With Modern AI
One Big Story combines editorial oversight with a modern AI stack. These tools allow a lean editorial operation to produce multi-format journalism efficiently — without sacrificing human judgment.
Philosophy: Depth Over Volume
We believe understanding one story deeply creates more clarity than skimming fifty headlines.
Each day, our system analyzes major reporting from around the world and evaluates stories based on:
- Impact on human lives and dignity
- Effects on economic, biological, and supply chain systems
- Geopolitical consequences
- Public health and environmental implications
- Market and technological significance
AI surfaces patterns and significance across hundreds of sources. A human editor selects and shapes the final story.
Our Values
AI can process scale. Humans assign meaning. One Big Story uses AI as a signal detector — not a content factory. It harnesses computational power to identify importance while preserving editorial judgment and journalistic standards.
Without human editors, there is no discernment.
Without readers, there is no purpose.
Created By
One Big Story was created by Carl Franzen, Executive Editor of VentureBeat and an award-winning science, technology, and business journalist with more than 17 years of experience covering AI, emerging technologies, startups, and global markets.
Contact
For inquiries, feedback, or partnerships: carlfranzen@gmail.com