Google Announced Partnership With Polis to Create ‘Journalism AI’ Project

Google Announced Partnership With Polis to Create ‘Journalism AI’ Project

The project will concentrate efforts on research and developing tools for newsrooms on the intersection of journalism and AI

At the beginning of December, 2018, Google – a global provider of Internet-related services and products – announced a partnership with Polis – an international journalism think-tank at London School of Economics and Political Science. The cooperation aims at creation ‘Journalism AI’ project which will focus on the issue how to help media industry use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in more innovative ways.

‘Journalism AI’ project is a part of the Google News Initiative (GNI). It will concentrate efforts on interdisciplinary research on the production and circulation of news, as well as on creation of a range of training tools for journalists. At GNI Innovation Forum, which was organized by Google on December 7, 2018, Google stated that the next year it will issue “a global survey about how the media is currently using – and could further benefit from – this [AI] technology”, as a part of ‘Journalism AI’ project.

Matt Cooke – the Head of Partnerships and Training at Google News Lab – also reported: “We'll also collaborate with newsrooms and academic institutions to create a best practices handbook and produce free online training on how to use AI in the newsroom for journalists worldwide.”

At the moment, Google has provided free training to journalists on a range of tools reaching more than 140,000 people in-person, which are now available in 16 languages. Moreover, in November, 2018, Google News launched a new initiative – the Asia-Pacific Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge – to help scribes and publishers in the Asia-Pacific region produce quality journalism in the digital age. Within the bounds of the initiative, Google will fund selected projects up to 300,000 USD, and finance up to 70% of the total project cost. "From Yangon to Manila, Sydney to New Delhi, they are experimenting with fresh approaches to reporting and new business models," concluded the company.

The Asia-Pacific Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge will fund selected projects up to $300,000 and finance up to 70 per cent of the total project cost, that inject new ideas into the news industry. According to Google, in Asia-Pacific, journalists and publishers are increasingly grappling with questions over how quality journalism can thrive in the digital age. "From Yangon to Manila, Sydney to New Delhi, they are experimenting with fresh approaches to reporting and new business models," said the company.

Author: Alena Snezhnaya

 

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