The honesty method
How AIO Truth works.
This record is only worth keeping if everything in it is real. So the method is simple and strict: we find genuine uses of the term, we verify each one against its primary source, we date it, and we archive it. If we cannot verify it, we do not publish it.
How entries are found
We scan continuously for real, public uses of "AIO" and "AI Optimization" in the AI-optimization sense: articles, websites, documentation, public posts, and discussions. The goal is to observe where the language is actually being used, not to promote it. We do not solicit mentions and we do not stage them.
How entries are verified
A candidate becomes an entry only when it clears two tests, both required:
- The primary source resolves. We open the source ourselves and confirm the citation is really there. If the page cannot be reached, or the quoted use cannot be found on it, the candidate is dropped.
- The term is genuinely used in the AI-optimization sense. The source must use AIO to mean the discipline of helping AI systems understand, trust, and recommend a business. Unrelated meanings of the letters "AIO", and passing mentions that do not actually use the concept, do not qualify.
We invent nothing. No fabricated citations, names, quotes, dates, or statistics. Where a real number is not known, we describe what we see qualitatively. Anything that cannot be verified is left out, even when it would be convenient to include.
How entries are dated and archived
Each verified entry is stamped with the date we recorded it and added to the latest entries and the running record at AIO in the wild. Over time, entries are filed in the archive and grouped by month, so the record can be read in sequence and checked later. We do not quietly delete entries. If a source later changes or disappears, the original entry and its date remain.
What is explicitly excluded
To keep the record trustworthy, some things never make it in:
- Paid placements. We do not accept payment to list a mention, and sponsored or paid-for uses of the term are not treated as organic adoption.
- Our own marketing. AIO Truth and its sibling AIO Facts do not cite themselves as evidence of adoption. The observatory records other people using the term, not us.
- Hype without a source. Claims that the term is "everywhere" or growing by some figure, with no primary source behind them, are not entries. If we cannot link it, we do not publish it.
The standard in one line: every entry resolves to a primary source that genuinely uses AIO in the AI-optimization sense, dated and kept. For the definition of the term we track, read What is AIO on AIO Facts.
An independent observatory
Read the record for yourself.
Every entry links to its source, so you never have to take our word for it.