The Google News Initiative and Blue Engine Collaborative invite North American local news organizations to apply for the GNI AI Lab for News Sustainability.
The program will begin in March 2025 and run approximately six months.
Participating publishers will receive regular workshops to help channel innovation thinking toward practical use, as well as group and one-on-one coaching to bring their AI ideas to life.
This program will help organizations use AI to drive the business of news, giving participants a structured way to test AI tools in pursuit of key business goals such as:
-
audience development
-
revenue growth
-
product development
-
operational efficiency
-
data analytics, or
-
other focuses as sought by the participants.
The AI Lab is a perfect fit for operational leaders inside news organizations who have dabbled in generative AI but haven’t yet found a way to put it to work for their major business goals.
Your organization is a good fit if:
-
You are a local news organization (digital, print, broadcast, etc.), nonprofit or for-profit, focused on public service for audiences in the United States or Canada;
-
You have an interest in experimenting with AI applications to better support your business in any of the areas listed above, and you are committed to a test-and-learn mindset to pursue it;
-
There’s a particular focus on applicants who self identify in the following ways: Your news organization is owned, led by, or serves Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and/or other people of color; your news organization is owned, led by, or serves women or the LGBTQ+ community; and/or your news organization serves a defined local community.
At the Lab’s conclusion, participants will walk away with better business outcomes attributable directly to AI use, a better understanding of what AI tools can do to drive business outcomes, and the ability to help peers across their organizations build with AI.