Robert S. Davis joined Encyclopædia Britannica in 2025 as Editorial Director for AI. He oversees how artificial intelligence is used across Britannica’s editorial work and reader-facing experiences, with a focus on accuracy, transparency, and trust. His role is to help editors use AI in practical ways while keeping human judgment firmly in control.

Before joining Britannica, Davis spent more than 20 years in journalism, including more than a decade at The Washington Post, where he worked as a news designer, homepage editor, senior editor, and product manager. Earlier in his career, he worked at The Boston Globe and several news organizations in Florida, gaining experience across reporting, editing, design, and publishing.

Education

B.S. in Communications — Print Journalism, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Fla.

Awards

Pulitzer Prize

• 2022: The Washington Post staff, Public Service, for coverage of the events of January 6, 2021

• 2014: The Boston Globe staff, Breaking News, for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings

Society for News Design

• Silver Medal for news design

• Multiple awards of excellence across several annual competitions

In His Own Words

I joined Britannica at a moment when artificial intelligence was moving out of tech circles and into everyday conversation. People are curious, excited, and skeptical — often all at once. That makes the questions around how we use AI here especially important.

Here’s how I view the use of AI at Britannica:

• Artificial intelligence is a tool, not an authority. It helps editors organize information, explore ideas, and refine drafts, but it does not replace expertise. Every article — regardless of whether AI is used — is reviewed, verified, and approved by a human editor.

• Transparency matters. When AI plays a meaningful role in the content readers see, we disclose it. Readers deserve to know how information is created.

• Editorial standards come first. Before any new AI feature is launched, it undergoes a rigorous editorial review to ensure its outputs meet Britannica’s standards. AI can and will make mistakes, and we are clear about that. Our responsibility is to set strong guardrails so these tools are genuinely useful and support learning.

In short, AI can make editorial work more efficient, but people remain responsible for every decision.

Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post