Google News initiative launches AI academy for small newsrooms

The Google News Initiative has partnered with Polis, the journalism think-tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), to launch the “AI Academy for Small Newsrooms” , a six-week-long, free online program for 20 media professionals to learn how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to support their journalism.

The program combines a series of masterclasses given by experts working at the intersection of journalism and artificial intelligence with opportunities for discussion among participants.

By the end of the course, participants will learn examples of how to use AI to automate repetitive tasks, such as interview transcription or image search, as well as how to optimize newsroom processes by getting insights on what content is most engaging, Google wrote in a blog post.

Additionally, participants will create action plans to guide the development of AI projects within their news organizations. JournalismAI, a 3-year project create by Polis and the Google News Initiative, will share these plans openly to help other publishers around the world.

The first pilot edition of the AI Academy for Small Newsrooms program will commence in September 2021 and will welcome journalists and developers from small news organizations in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.

Journalists and media professionals working in small newsrooms (less than 50 employees) can apply for the program – with no coding skills required. The deadline to submit the application is at 11:59 pm GMT on August 1st, 2021. Devdiscourse