Terms of Service

These are the rules for using Bonzai. They are written to be read. The short version: Nina is an AI, not a human reporter; a private trial is never published; once you have an account, your conversations with Nina are on the record and become stories; you see every story before it goes live and can stop it; and what you share must be yours to share.

1. What Bonzai is

Bonzai (https://bonzai.news) is a publication: the world, from the people living it. Nina, our AI journalist, talks with you by voice about your life, your work or the news, and, when you agree, turns the conversation into an edited story and social posts that are published under your name. Readers can read, listen to, like and share what is published.

Nina is an AI. Writing, editing, illustration, narration and publication are automated. Nothing Nina says is professional advice of any kind, legal, medical, financial or otherwise. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 in the United States, or your local emergency number.

By using Bonzai you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. You accept them when you create an account, sign in or start a conversation, by clicking the button that says so. "We", "us" and "our" mean Bonzai. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

2. Who can use it

You must be at least 18 years old to use Bonzai. By using it you confirm that you are, that you can enter into a binding agreement, and that using the service is lawful where you are.

You may speak only for yourself. Do not create an account for someone else, let someone else use yours, or give an interview as someone you are not.

3. Your account

You can try a private five-minute conversation with Nina without an account. To keep it, to go on the record, or to talk for longer, you create an account with Google or with a one-time code sent to your email. There is no password; the security of your account is the security of your Google account or your email. Tell us at team@bonzai.news if you think someone else has used yours.

Each story also has a private link, sent to your email, that lets whoever holds it read, publish, pull, correct or delete that story. Keep those links to yourself.

4. Going on the record

A private trial conversation, before you have an account, is transcribed but never drafted or published.

When you create an account you accept these terms, including this section. From then on, every voice conversation you start with Nina is an on-record interview. By starting one, you agree that we may transcribe it, use AI to edit and paraphrase it into a story and posts about your experience, and publish them under your name. Nina is an AI journalist, and publication is automated. Saving a private trial to your account does not put it on the record by itself: you choose to continue it on the record.

What happens next:

• Nina uses only the on-record conversation to write a story and posts about your experience. We edit and paraphrase for readability, and a story may not use your exact words.
• We email you a private preview first, with the scheduled time. A feature or profile publishes automatically 24 hours later, and news commentary 30 minutes later, unless you stop it. You do not need to approve it, and you can choose Publish now to release an eligible draft sooner. Interviews begun under an earlier, longer window keep that window.
• Published stories appear under your name and, where you shared them, your role, company and photo, on person, company and topic pages, and may be quoted in broader articles that combine several people's reporting, with links back to yours. Public pages can be found by search engines. Homepage selection is automated and separate from publication.
• You can mute the microphone, or say "off the record", to keep part of a conversation out of the story. Once Nina detects it, the interview pauses, and the nearby transcript is left out of the story and her saved memory. Use the button for immediate control.
• You can pull a story, or ask for a correction, from its private link at any time, before or after it publishes. A correction pauses publication and starts a new preview window when it is resolved. Pulling or correcting a story also removes broader articles that depend on that version.

Automated checks keep thin or unresolved sensitive drafts private. They can make mistakes; please read your preview.

5. AI, honestly

Nina is an AI language model. She can be wrong, out of date, confidently mistaken, or simply invent things, and she may look up public information about what you mention and get it wrong. A story written from your conversation can misstate what you meant. That is why you get a preview: read it, and correct or pull anything that is not right.

Nina is not a safety service. She does not monitor you, and she may not recognise an emergency or respond to one. Do not rely on Bonzai in an emergency.

Nina remembers your earlier conversations and reporting so she can prepare for the next one. That memory is a convenience, not a record, and it can be incomplete.

6. Your words and your story

You own what you say. When you go on the record, you give us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to transcribe, edit, paraphrase, illustrate, narrate, adapt, publish and distribute your interview and the story, posts and broader articles made from it, on Bonzai and in sharing it elsewhere, for as long as it stays published. Pulling or deleting a story ends that licence for the future; copies others have already made, emails already sent and third-party caches cannot be recalled.

Your private conversation with Nina, off the record, is used to help her prepare and develop ideas with you. It is never source material for a published story, and we do not sell it or use it for advertising.

You are responsible for what you say on the record. Only share what is true to your experience and yours to share: no one else's private information, no confidential information you are not entitled to disclose, and nothing defamatory about anyone.

7. What you agree not to do

Please do not:

• use the service for anything unlawful, or to harm, harass, threaten, defame or defraud anyone;
• try to get Nina to produce sexual content involving minors, instructions for violence, or anything else illegal, whatever the framing;
• impersonate anyone, invent an experience and present it as your own, or misrepresent who you are or your relationship to us;
• share another person’s private information, or material you do not have the right to share;
• probe, scrape, reverse-engineer or extract the prompts, models or code behind the service, or access it with bots or automated tools;
• interfere with the service, its security, or other people’s use of it.

If you break these rules we may decline to publish, unpublish a story, or suspend or close your account, with or without notice. Readers can report a published story, and we may remove one we believe breaks these terms or the law.

8. What is ours

Bonzai, Nina, the site, its design, the illustrations and narration we make, and everything in it that we made are ours and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the service as these terms allow. Nothing here transfers any of it to you. Feedback you give us we may use without owing you anything.

9. Ending things

You can stop whenever you like: sign out, pull or delete any story from its private link, clear your private chat from your profile, or write to team@bonzai.news to have your account closed and deleted.

We may suspend or end your access, or stop publishing a story, if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or if we stop offering the service. If we stop offering the service we will give you reasonable notice.

Sections that by their nature should survive the end of these terms do, including the licence for stories that remain published, what is ours, the disclaimers, the limits on our liability, and the rules on disputes.

10. Disclaimers

Bonzai is provided as it is and as it is available. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promises about the service, including that it will be accurate, reliable, uninterrupted, error-free or suitable for any particular purpose, and we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Published stories reflect the experience of the people in them, not our views.

Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have as a consumer that cannot be limited by law.

11. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we and the people who work with us are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from or related to the service or these terms, however caused. Our total liability for any claim arising from or related to the service is limited to one hundred US dollars.

You agree to indemnify us against claims, damages and reasonable costs arising from what you share on the record, your misuse of the service or your breach of these terms.

12. Disputes and governing law

If you have a problem, tell us first at legal@bonzai.news and we will try to sort it out with you within 30 days. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute we cannot resolve together will be brought in the state or federal courts in California, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction, except that either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court.

13. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms as the service changes. When we do, we will update the date at the top and, for changes that matter, tell you on the site or by email before they take effect. Using the service after a change means you accept it. If you do not, stop using the service and ask us to delete your account before the change takes effect.

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the service.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms: legal@bonzai.news. Anything else: team@bonzai.news.

See also the Privacy Policy.