The BBC has revealed that they are examining pages of documents about Peter Mandelson‘s appointment as ambassador using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Government released the documents after votes from MPs, following Mandelson’s sacking last year after revelations about the extent of his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were unveiled.

The release, split into three volumes, cost over £1m to assemble, with the latest batch being more than 10 times the size of the initial set of files, released in March. With the files containing internal emails and WhatsApp messages, the BBC admitted to using Google’s AI-powered journalism assistant to trawl through the details. A clip from the broadcaster was shared on social media and sparked major backlash from viewers, as one commented: “So that explains why so much is always left out of BBC reporting. Thanks.”

Another hit back: “It is a development of Microsoft Word’s ‘search’ 30 years ago. JournoAI.”

Another concerned viewer shared: “I would hope that after some key information is discovered, it’s checked by a reporter/researcher using a computer NOT connected to the AI to double check. AI is notorious for making things up.”

Despite the backlash, a fourth praised: “Great demonstration of semantic search helping find journalistic needles in document haystacks.”

In the social media clip, the BBC’s statistician, Robert Cuffe, explained: “This is a vast trough of documents, much bigger than last time round. The last Mandelson drop was about 150 pages; this is 10 times bigger.”

As he scrolled through the documents, the journalist added: “It’s in three volumes, just the table of contents, keeps on going for page, after page, after page, after page.”

Robert then showed the code that the BBC produced following the Jeffrey Epstein release, which helped to “take a massive document like this and split it up according to the table of contents.

“So when we’re sending documents between journalists, we can send them only the stuff they need, but chopping up the PDF is not enough. You still need to find the right information, and you can’t just search for a keyword, and that’s why we started to use AI.”

Among the messages, while tons of information were redacted and declassified for publication, Mandelson’s swipes at the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, were laid bare.

In late July 2025, Mandelson told Pat McFadden the mood in No.10 was “beleaguered and bereft” after a visit.

After McFadden singled out certain individuals as “the best we have,” Mandelson replied: “I agree, but they don’t work as a team, they are not led, and none of them really know what Keir thinks or wants.”

“In fact, most of them don’t think Keir knows what he wants,” Mandelson added.