A Weird Wire initiative

The Ground Truth
Initiative.

AI is answering questions about your town right now. The Initiative exists to make sure it answers with the truth — and that local businesses own what they build.

// the shift already happened

People stopped searching.
They started asking.

35%

of U.S. consumers now start looking for a product with an AI tool

vs
13.6%

who start with a search engine.

AI now owns the top of the funnel — before most businesses have built any visibility there at all.
// and it’s moving fast

This isn’t coming. It’s already here, and accelerating.

796%

growth in AI-referred traffic over two years

13% 48%

of Google searches now show an AI answer, up from early 2025

2B

people a month are served AI answers — about who to trust and where to go

Sources: Similarweb, WebFX, Conductor, Google — 2025–2026. Full breakdown in The Ground Truth Initiative.

What we believe

Five things we won't bend on.

  1. 1

    Visibility is a right, not a product.

    Verification is free, forever. A paywalled record is a thin record.

  2. 2

    Your data is yours.

    Everything the platform learns about your business belongs to your business.

  3. 3

    Own your infrastructure, don’t rent it.

    Software you own beats subscriptions you bleed.

  4. 4

    AI does the heavy lifting. A human signs off on the truth.

    Nothing about your business publishes on autopilot.

  5. 5

    The best relationship is one where you need us less over time.

    We teach what we know. No gates, no drip, no guru games.

What the Initiative does

Three jobs. One standard.

The Record

Free verification — every local business and event, AI-readable, on the record before it locks. Your neighbors can find you; every model can answer with you.

The Education

The Ground Truth Initiativenewsletter — plain-English AI for local owners. What's changing, what it means for your shop, and what to do about it. Weekly.

The Standard

How partner businesses and, later, partner organizations operate — data ownership, a human editorial gate, no lock-in. Over time, the Initiative becomes a standard other local operators can adopt.

When your business is verified, the machine starts working: the system watches everything happening around your business on the platform — searches, events, seasons, neighborhoods — and drafts content that puts you in the story. Then a human decides what goes live.Nothing publishes on autopilot. That's the Ground Truth standard: AI does the heavy lifting, a person signs off on the truth.

The deadline

The record locks Labor Day — Monday, September 7, 2026.

The verified snapshot of Georgetown, Round Rock, and Pflugerville becomes the ground truth of the corridor — and everything unverified comes off. Get on the record.

Get verified — free →

The Education

The Ground Truth Initiative, weekly.

Plain-English AI for local business owners. What's changing, what it means for your shop, what to do about it.