Spotlight on AI: New Training Series for Journalists

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New Courses Aim to Train 1,000 Journalists on AI Reporting

Never has the impact of artificial intelligence felt more consequential. And never has it been more difficult to follow. Every week, investors trumpet more AI startup deals and companies hype new AI products, while governments quietly deploy more automated and algorithmic tools without public transparency. More often than not, those negatively impacted by such technologies have little way of knowing how and why they have been harmed. 

Faced with this unprecedented challenge, journalists are under-resourced and outnumbered. Seasoned tech reporters are flooded with endless marketing and thwarted by increasingly secretive corporations and government agencies. Journalists across every desk are being urged to learn about AI and cover its rapid proliferation instantly. To keep pace with the accelerated development and application of AI, we, too, need to accelerate building out our capacity. 

Today, we’re thrilled to launch the AI Spotlight Series, which plans to do that. Over the next two years, our initiative aims to equip 1,000 journalists with the knowledge, skills, and resources to cover artificial intelligence. 

The program will offer three “tracks” of virtual trainings to address the gaps we’ve heard about from journalists and to fit into their busy schedules: one track for reporters on any desk, one for reporters focused on covering AI or wanting to deepen their knowledge of AI reporting, and one for editors commissioning stories and thinking strategically about their team’s overall coverage. 

Our instructors include some of the world’s leading tech reporters and editors who have tracked AI and data-driven technologies for years. They will give you a firm grounding in what AI is and how it works, how to use different tools to investigate companies and governments, and how to identify and tell the most critical stories to drive policy and community change. 

Each training session is scheduled to be time zone-friendly for different regions of the world. You can find the full training schedule on our website. 

By scaling AI literacy and reporting across the media, we hope to help create a virtuous cycle where more journalists are equipped to ask the hard questions that benefit the communities they serve: Where and how is AI being used? Where is it working or breaking? Who is being harmed, and who stands to profit? How can our audiences make sense of what it all means for them? Journalists who go through our AI Spotlight Series will be encouraged to apply for our AI Reporting Grants and AI Accountability Fellowships to pursue in-depth, long-term projects that interrogate these technologies and the people behind them. 

Can’t wait to see you in class. 

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IMPACT 

Pulitzer Center grantee Marco Garro won a 2024 World Press Photo Award for his project Crímenes Silenciados (Silenced Crimes).

Silenced Crimes covers over three decades of violence against the LGBTQ+ communities of the Peruvian Amazon and how political hate speech re-victimizes survivors seeking justice. The project exposes underreported crimes against members of the community while respecting the memory of its late victims and the condition of survivors.

Garro was recognized by World Press Photo’s regional contest in the South America category.

This message first appeared in the April 12, 2024, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.

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