OpenAI and Microsoft are putting $10 million into a new local news fellowship program that looks at how newsrooms can better integrate AI technologies into their day-to-day work.
The program, announced on Tuesday, will have the two companies partner with The Lenfest Institute, a nonprofit organization that develops “sustainable strategies” for local news organizations.
The Minnesota Star Tribune, Chicago Public Media, Philadelphia Inquirer, Seattle Times and Long Island-based Newsday are the five outlets that will receive funding as part of the program’s initial round. Each outlet will “receive a grant to hire a two-year AI fellow to pursue projects that focus largely on improving business sustainability and implementing AI technology within their organizations,” according to release from Lenfest.
The $10 million in funding is comprised of $2.5 million from each company, along with another $2.5 million from Microsoft and OpenAI “in software and enterprise credits.”
“Through these fellowships — and by sharing results with the broader news industry — we will help empower local newsrooms to explore, implement and advocate for AI business solutions that uphold the highest ethical standards while strengthening their future prospects,” Jim Friedlich, executive director and CEO of The Lenfest Institute, said in a statement.
The fellowship program comes as the news industry grapples with how to coexist with the rise of artificial intelligence. On Monday, the New York Post and Dow Jones sued Perplexity AI for “illegal copying” of their content; the lawsuit claims the startup ripped off a “massive amount” of their articles by giving Perplexity users verbatim or near verbatim responses that came directly from the outlets.
At the same time, most readers and viewers aren’t fans of AI-generated news. A June survey from the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford found only 36% of respondents are “comfortable using news made by humans with the help of AI.” And that figure drops to 19% for news that’s mostly made by AI, the survey found.
Even the top media executive at OpenAI has said he’s skeptical of news stories made by AI.
“No one wants to read AI-generated news,” Varun Shetty, the head of media partnerships at OpenAI, said earlier this month.
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