Jim VandeHei
He co-founded and runs Axios, and before that co-founded Politico, after years as a political reporter at the Washington Post.
“if you got to use ChatGPT to write, you probably have bigger functional problems that you need to deal with.”
Prof G Markets · Money & Markets · September 2026
Context
The line lands in the middle of a stretch where VandeHei is enthusiastic about AI, having just called it astronomically helpful and said parts of it are already at superhuman levels for him. Axios policy is that every line in a story is owned and verified by a reporter and an editor. His complaint is aimed at people being told the technology will write for them.
Transcript
…reporting. I want them talking to people. I want them breaking news. I want them applying analytical judgment that a machine can't apply, often drawn from understanding the people, understanding the historical context, understanding the piece of news as it sits in the broader context of today.
…it comes to just the way that we consume information, the idea that AI might be telling us things and we're just going along for the ride, assuming that it's correct? And in that vein, would you ever think about putting some policies in place around the usage of AI when it comes to your reporting?
…and write and try to help people understand this moment. And, you know, again, like I'm in the media and I have the time maybe because I run a media company to do this, but I encourage young people to think that way. Like this thing, I'm very down on what young people are being told about this country and about artificial intelligence. Like there's no doubt you shouldn't cheat with it. And if you got to use ChatGPT to write, you probably have bigger functional problems that you need to deal with. But this idea that like, oh, man, it's scary and you're screwed. I don't know what they're talking about. Like the unemployment rate is like 4.4%. When I was taking economic classes, I was told it wasn't even structurally possible to have unemployment this low. I'm watching kids come into Axios who are 22, 23, 24, 25, who have natural proficiency and ability to use artificial intelligence…
I think this probably ties into your story of starting several companies. And I think something that's kind of interesting is you transitioned from reporter to guy who manages reporters into someone who actually started a business. And now you're more of a founder, owner, operator. Tell us a little…
It was wild, right? Like we just had this idea to start politico. We did it. Like it wasn't a lot of thought. I wasn't like, okay, one day I'm going to have to be a founder. One day I'm going to be an entrepreneur. One day I'm going to be a CEO. Say, I'm a journalist, man. Like, let's go do this.…
You mentioned how you've kind of seen all the facets of humanity, really, from running a company. Because I think running a company, it's like you're managing people. You're just dealing with people. I think that's sort of what you explained there. What have you learned about people from managing…
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