The latest incarnation of this belief system arrives in the form of Objection AI, a project that presents itself as a kind of “truth tribunal” for journalism. The program is the brainchild of Aron D’Souza, an Australian lawyer whose most notable professional achievement remains his role in helping orchestrate entrepreneur and investment capitalist Peter Thiel’s legal strategy to secretly bankroll the lawsuit that destroyed Gawker. (After the outlet outed Thiel as gay in 2007, he backed former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan’s successful privacy lawsuit for publishing his sex tape.) The money behind Objection comes from that same ecosystem: investors like Thiel and Balaji Srinivasan, a crypto evangelist and prediction-market enthusiast.

Objection AI’s logistics are startling. For a starting fee of $2,000, anyone can file a complaint against a piece of journalism, even if they are not the subject of the article. It can be a competitor, a political ally or a stranger with a random grievance. Once the complaint is filed, a team of investigators — described by D’Souza as including former FBI, CIA and National Security Agency officials — assembles an evidence file. The journalist is invited to defend their reporting. Then the material is handed over to what Objection calls its “AI tribunal”: a collection of large language models from major AI companies, coordinated by a proprietary system. The tribunal issues a so-called verdict on the factual claims in the story. That verdict feeds into a public score, the “Honor Index,” a numerical rating attached to the journalist’s name, and marketed as a measure of their integrity and track record.