A Peter Thiel-backed startup makes a surprising bet: Flooding statehouses with reporters

Nothing opens up Silicon Valley wallets quite like artificial intelligence: AI promises to transform health care, education, even how militaries wage war.

But one AI start-up has attracted $70 million in investment from some of Northern California’s most prominent firms by doing something unusual for the move-fast-and-break-things tech sector: hiring local journalists and sticking them in statehouses.