➞ Grounded Hallucinations
Founder, WestComms

Mike West

Mike West is the founder of WestComms, a creative communications consultancy for crypto, SaaS, and venture-backed startups. A lifelong startup junkie, he started WestComms after an extended stint at one of the world's largest PR firms, and has spent more than a decade helping startups build communications programs that actually earn coverage. These days that includes building the AI-native agency systems this blog writes about — and keeping their hallucinations grounded.

June 17, 2026 · Mike West

We Asked Four Frontier Models to Write a Press Release. Only One Lied.

A bake-off, a fabricated quote, and the one thing AI still can't do for your launch.

Read it ➞
June 17, 2026 · Mike West

We Logged Every Time a Human Deleted Our AI's Work. Here's What They Killed First.

We built an AI that learns from its own rejection. 171 edits later, the number one thing humans delete isn't bad writing — it's confident, specific, completely made-up numbers.

Read it ➞
June 17, 2026 · Mike West

Nobody Wants Your Framework. They Want the Thing.

Our AI kept handing people a beautiful strategy document. They wanted one LinkedIn post. We have the data on exactly how often the "framework" gets thrown in the trash. (Spoiler: every time.)

Read it ➞
June 17, 2026 · Mike West

"I've Been in Cybersecurity for 30 Years" Beats "I Used to Think…" Every Single Time.

Our AI loves a self-deprecating opener. A rhetorical question. A little "here's the thing." The humans whose names go on the byline keep replacing all of it with one thing: credentials. Turns out authority doesn't do throat-clearing.

Read it ➞
June 17, 2026 · Mike West

The Bravest Thing an AI Can Say Is "I Don't Have That."

When our AI is missing a fact, it doesn't pause. It builds an elaborate, confident, completely invented scaffold around the hole. The fix wasn't a better model. It was teaching it to stop and say three words.

Read it ➞