AI has almost moved into the same category as politics and religion in terms of how contentious it is. People are rightly concerned about the impact of this groundbreaking technological revolution. Those advocating for pulling the plug are frankly delusional. It’s here, and we either build governance around it through carefully considered regulation or let it become a societal and political bloodbath. I want to take you on a journey grounded not in conjecture and conspiracy theories, but in my lived experience working with it in detail on a real-life project for good.
I want to be absolutely straight with people about what I’m aiming to do here, because I’m sure some people won't accept that someone would invest time, money, and effort in a project without the promise of financial reward at the end. So here goes. I am a retired business owner who, like most self-employed people, has spent decades through the ups and downs of running a business. I’ve enjoyed the good times and the bad.
At 67, I’m in the seats outside the departure lounge of life, and I’m equally content with that too; I don’t want to live forever; indeed, I can't think of anything worse. When I wake up each morning, it’s normally to the smiling face of the love of my life, cuppa in hand, to get my day off to a good start. We have been together now 47 years through good and bad. We’re blessed to be able to take a holiday if we need a rest, go out and enjoy a nice meal, or have a day out and buy ourselves the odd treat. Life is good in the big scheme of things. But I found myself living with the enemy of every hard-working self-employed person who retires after being accustomed to working long hours, sometimes seven days a week. I had an abundance of time on my hands and little to occupy my mind.
It’s a story I’m sure many can relate to, and it led me to become more politically active on social media. Not to make money, but because it gave me a space to share my thoughts publicly. More as a journal initially to document this time in history, rather than to become a voice some might want to listen to on a regular basis. I’ve been politically aware all my life; my father was a key figure in local politics, and about 15 years ago I designed a casework desktop solution for UK Members of Parliament to record and action constituent problems. As a result, I have an in-depth understanding of the challenges so many people face and how a dedicated elected representative can help solve them.
What has always puzzled me about many American elected representatives is that so many lack an emotional connection to the challenges everyday Americans face in their daily struggles to get by. It took me a while to understand why, but now I do. For the majority of them, it is a job, an opportunity for self-enrichment, not a vocation, as it should be. A question often asked is: should members be well paid for their efforts? Absolutely they should; I believe they are not paid enough for the job they do if they do it properly. If they are incentivised to excel in their work, it will ultimately save money that can be better invested in public services.
Tragically for society, many have chosen instead to become politicians for hire, and that’s why the American people will be at the back of the queue when it comes to representation. Unlike corporate special interests, they can’t buy the legislation that would make their lives better. As a result, constituents' needs get relegated as corporate donors step in to buy the access they promise constituents once every two years. The vote required for their representatives to remain a passenger on the gravy train.
You may think that's harsh, and it certainly does NOT apply to ALL politicians; some representatives don’t take corporate money or trade stocks by exploiting their inside knowledge. Sadly, though, they are in the minority, and what was once limited to a few bad apples has grown into an epidemic. This is why America now finds itself in the position It’s in. Millions are losing healthcare, and children are going to bed hungry. Many families are just a paycheck away from becoming homeless, or one illness away from medical bankruptcy.
These are symptoms of failed policy and the political class's subjugation to corporate ownership. It sickens me, and it should do you. It’s become a choice to send children to bed hungry tonight while the obscenely rich become even more obscenely rich. Don’t misunderstand, I believe that, for all its faults and failings, capitalism remains the only game in town, and I know Democratic Socialist readers might disagree, but it’s about balance and the need for guardrails partnered with social responsibility, not ideological dogma.
We know it works because the Nordic model is highly successful. The retort is always that these are small countries that, in the minds of the all-powerful United States, don’t warrant any time discussing. It’s nonsense, just a deflection narrative; there certainly would be no ‘fat jabs’ without Denmark. Denmark is the global hub for modern weight-loss and diabetes injection (GLP-1) development. Its base is Copenhagen, and its manufacturing hub is Kalundborg. Norway has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with assets of $2.3 trillion. It meets its nation’s pension needs through annual transfers from the fund’s asset-generated revenue. The system focuses on long-term returns and treats capital gains, dividends, and interest as a single unit.
No system is perfect, which is why the political class must be held to account for its actions. However, the key is having the facts to challenge government when it fails to act in its citizens' interests. It should be no surprise to you that the Trump regime invests a lot of time hiding the truth and ‘flooding the zone with shit’, as Steve Bannon so eloquently put it. It should be no surprise that those supporting this regime's policies, who own the social media landscape, are working with the administration to shape the public narrative. Then we look at the mainstream media. The Paramount takeover of Warner is the final closing of the Pentangle in their dark plan.
The only way to counter this poisoned information pipeline is with better sources. We know that independent media has become the only way to find the truth these days, but it’s up against a fine-tuned propaganda machine constantly mainlining Trump narcotics into the public information bloodstream. That presents a major challenge. The MeidasTouch Network is a great example of how you can create a counterbalance to lies and disinformation, but it's an island refuge in a sea of propaganda. It would be wrong to say there’s not great information out there from great writers and journalists with integrity. Their work is vitally important to preserving democracy and the values so many hold close to their heart. It’s why this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The Truth Matters Project is designed to be a civic information hub. If you like, an information Grand Central Station, providing routes to facts and the truth. A place where everyday Americans can visit free of charge for coffee or conversation with others. I want it to become the go-to place to fact-check and find the truth. A place to help better inform people and encourage political engagement. It’s about creating a civic hub, a space where lively debate is encouraged, and people can gather to make their case for ‘people first’ politics. It will include (please note that this is likely to be amended as we approach launch):
The Newsroom: This will be the site’s opening page, highlighting news items and information I think will interest our readers. It will be the main entrance, and the Library, Reading Room, and other areas will connect to it. Here you’ll find recommendations for reading and viewing.
The Library: A searchable public library of ALL my Substack posts and an archive of my video content, also searchable. The aim is for each library collection to become part of a huge information repository. Each will be searchable by text, policy, issue and tags. The key is a rigorous curation process that is human, not AI. This space will also include academic studies and government statistics. This is where you will find primary source information from places like The Federal Register, census data, etc.
The Reading Room: A space where you can explore external information sources from organisations like the UN and think tanks like Chatham House. Once again, this will be carefully curated third-party information on public interest issues. It’s also where you would find links to the likes of MeidasTouch Network and Democracy Docket etc. Again, it will offer granular search capabilities so you can find what you need quickly.
The Screening Room: This will be an area where you can find documentaries, podcasts and other media content. It will also be where you can submit your own content to be featured. A place where your advocacy group can hold a private shared space for a media-driven meeting. The system's technical architecture ensures that a private meeting will not block the space for public use. Again, this will be a fully searchable space where you can search the curated media content. Where possible and rights allow, you can also download content from the system’s internal media repository. This is also where we'll host a library of in-house-created interactive video content that I am extremely excited about. In addition, it will also host interactive versions of my Substack.
The Frontier AI Lab: This will be an internally walled-off space where you can experience examples of how we intend to embrace AI for good to present information. It will provide insight into where we are going with integrating AI into our information flow. The space includes a clear statement on how AI is used and any risks associated with the output. As the title indicates, this will be an experimental Frontier space to explore AI in a controlled environment. At launch, it will be built on the Gemini Notebook framework, which will sit behind my presentation layer. While this area will be free to use, it will be tied to a token meter, and once a user exceeds the free limit, we will offer additional tokens for a fee (at cost). You will appreciate the danger: it could become a place people easily exploit at the project's expense.
Members area: While the Truth Matters site itself will be FREE to all forever, with no requirement to subscribe, there will also be a FREE members space. To access this area, you'll just need to subscribe to the site. The only required field will be an email address; other fields will be optional (field names TBD). Subscribing gives you a bookmarks list where you can store links to content on the site, share them, and quickly navigate to content you like when you return. This also gives users access to the discussion space, where you can chat with other site members about shared interests. This is also where I will host member-only presentations, guest lectures and public events, as well as updates on the Truth Matters Project. Zoom will be embedded in the framework so others can host meetings in this space too.
The above is just the tip of the iceberg for a project that has been on the drawing board for almost three years. It’s only possible now because AI makes it cost-effective, especially for proof-of-concept ideas. The intention of a soft launch is to give my Substack community and their guests a chance to test-drive it, rather than listening to me witter on about it here. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.
Truth Matters as a brand has served its apprenticeship in the US political space. It’s a little like the undiscovered indie band that is known by those who respect what I do, but now it’s time to cross over into the wider public consciousness, and this is step one of that process. I want this project to serve the greater good. My carefully selected partnership with Claude AI is key to delivering this as a civic project, simply because I can’t afford to support a team at this stage. To be clear, that is NOT the long-term goal; I clearly can’t realistically carry this project on my own. No man is an army, and this is truly a task for an army.
AI lets me use Agentic AI tools to manage site administration and flag areas that need attention as we progress. It is a phenomenally powerful asset to a project like this, but I am critically aware that this is a project that demands passion and soul, and you can’t get that from an AI assistant.
For this to work, it has to be an enterprise solution, and that is the part that's taken time to architect. I’ve had to do that while writing daily Substack posts, because the moment I stop, my Substack revenue drops; I can see it in the analytics, so I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. I take a week off, as I did last week to do project work, and my weekly revenue dropped 27% from the week before. It’s a catch-22: you can’t prove it works without taking the time to build it, but take that time and the revenue falls that’s helping you build it.
Readers can be a hard crowd to please, especially when they are parting with their hard-earned cash, and I accept that. This has become a balancing act that I believe is worth the risk. I’ve set aside a personal budget to get it across the line, but I can’t achieve this on my own. I’m more than happy to wait until people get the chance to see it in action because I have absolute faith it will blow people’s minds. It will be a unique, high-production-value experience, with new branding and my promise to commit a decade to it (assuming I live that long). This is NOT about profit; it’s about crowdfunding its operation beyond the proof-of-concept delivery, so it can make a meaningful contribution in the 2028 election cycle, the most consequential election in history. I’m afraid I’m in your hands on that. You will have to decide for yourself.
In the final part of this series, I’ll look more closely at the system architecture and a fascinating experience I had when I forced Claude to ethics-check data from Gemini AI produced on Project 2025 and Project Esther from the Heritage Foundation. I spent two days last week working with Claude to develop an ethics and values engine to filter information and detect misinformation. Claud knocked it out of the park. The moment we ran Gemini’s assessment of the administration's implementation of Project 2025, Claud tore it apart and labelled it totally misleading. To say I was pleased would be the understatement of the year.
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Thank you.
I’ve been wanting something like this FOREVER.