The institution's editorial record on AI discovery — how the major systems decide what to surface, and what becoming legible to them requires. Each note is a single, citable position. The library expands as the field does.
Field Notes is not a blog. Each anchor is reviewed by the Methodology Council and treated as a position the institution will defend. Where our position changes, we say so, in writing, and date the amendment.
The Field Notes anchor library covers the twelve questions the institution observes most frequently across briefings, the press, and the engagements it leads. Each anchor is the institution's canonical answer.
What ChatGPT actually consults when it answers a commercial question — and what becoming the answer requires. The most-asked question of 2026.
Read the anchorWhy AI Overviews behave differently from classic search — and the structural moves that determine inclusion in the generated answer.
Read the anchorPerplexity is the most citation-transparent of the major systems. The institution's reading of how its citation logic works.
Read the anchorClaude's commercial-discovery behaviour, the citation patterns we observe, and the steps that move a subject inside its answers.
Read the anchorGemini's distinctive integration into Google's broader graph — and the methodological consequences for getting surfaced.
Read the anchorThe term, the discipline, and why the institution prefers AI Discovery as the more accurate name for the field's actual work.
Read the anchorHow AEO differs from SEO, where the two intersect, and why the older discipline does not exhaust the new one.
Read the anchorThe signals the AI Discovery Score measures — defined, weighted, and shown working. The institution's most cited methodological piece.
Read the anchorThe four causes the institution sees most often, in order of frequency, with the structural moves that resolve each.
Read the anchorAn accessible reading of the underlying mechanics — retrieval, reranking, citation weighting — without the academic apparatus.
Read the anchorTwo systems, two source-selection logics. The institution's side-by-side reading of how each answers the same commercial question.
Read the anchorWhat the score measures, how it is computed, what a good score looks like, and the published methodology behind every published number.
Read the anchorEach Field Note answers one question. The Standard frames them all. If you've come to Field Notes through a single question, the Standard is the document that sits behind every answer.
Read the Standard →