From a situation to a video you can trust
Knowing After Dark is made with AI tools. This page explains plainly what is automated, what is checked, and what the pictures are.
In short
- The facts come from official sources. Each episode is researched from government agencies, utilities, fire services and health organisations, and every page used is linked on the episode page.
- The scripts are written by an AI model (Claude, by Anthropic), then checked against those sources line by line.
- The pictures and video clips are AI-generated on our own computer. They show what a situation looks like; they are not photos of a real event.
- The voices are synthetic (ElevenLabs or Kokoro text-to-speech). No real person reads the lines.
- The presenters are original illustrated characters created for the show. They are not real people, and the experts are characters, not credentialed professionals.
- A human producer reviews and approves every episode before it is published.
How an episode is made
- A situation is researched. An AI model (Claude, by Anthropic) picks one everyday situation and reads what official and expert sources say about it: the facts, the right steps, the common myths and the what-ifs, each tied to the page it came from.
- The script is written. The host and the day's expert talk it through over a planned run of pictures, diagrams and on-screen steps.
- It is fact-checked. A second pass checks every line, every on-screen step and every number against the sources, and rewrites anything unsupported or easy to mishear.
- The pictures are made. Realistic scenes and short clips are generated on our own computer, and the diagrams are drawn by the video itself.
- The video is voiced and rendered, with captions, the recap card and the sources at the end.
- A person approves it. The producer watches it, can correct the script and render it again, and only then publishes it at knowing.afterdark.fm.
Read the originals
A short video simplifies, and advice can differ by country, region and situation. Every episode page lists the official pages it was researched from under Sources; when it matters, read them. The videos are general information, not professional advice. In an emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number.
The hosts
Jess and Dale are original characters made for this show. They are fictional: they are not real people, and the experts' backgrounds are part of the character. Their voices are synthetic.
Report a mistake
Spotted something wrong in an episode? Contact us with the episode link (it starts with https://knowing.afterdark.fm/e/) and what needs fixing. Corrections are reviewed by the producer, and a wrong episode is fixed or taken down.
Credits
- Research: linked on each episode page. The pages belong to their publishers.
- Scripts: Claude by Anthropic.
- Voices: ElevenLabs, and Kokoro-82M text-to-speech (Apache 2.0).
- Pictures and clips: generated on our own computer (Krea 2 and Wan 2.2).
- Presenters and diagrams: original characters and animation made for Knowing After Dark.
- Site art: the background art and textures are original, drawn for this site.