Two Nigerians have been selected for the inaugural AI Journalism Lab at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Award winning Nigerian journalists and founder of FactMattersNG, Hannah Ajakaiye and Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID)’s Head of Innovation, Monsur Hussain were among the cohort of 25 journalists, media leaders, academics, and artificial intelligence practitioners selected for the program.
The AI Journalism Lab, created in collaboration with Microsoft will have the individuals finding ways to navigate and harness generative AI in ethical ways that reinforce trust from communities and increase impact for their news organizations and the larger media industry.
The selected participants who are from various countries across the world were announced on Friday April 26 in a post made available on the school’s website.
“We’re thrilled to welcome these exceptional newsroom leaders and journalists to our program and eagerly anticipate witnessing the innovative projects they will embark on,” said Program Lead Nikita Roy, an ICFJ Knight Fellow and host of the Newsroom Robots podcast.
“Their diverse perspectives and expertise will undoubtedly shape the future of AI-powered journalism, inspiring impactful change within our industry.” she was quoted on the website post.
Noreen Gillespie, Journalism Director at Microsoft’s Democracy Forward also said “by harnessing the potential of AI technology, journalists will have the tools needed to streamline operations, maximize efficiency, and foster long-term sustainability,”
Aside from Ajakaiye and Hussain from Nigeria, the cohort had professionals from all levels of management who come from various countries across the world, including France, United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Philippines, Germany, Mongolia, India, Canada, Argentina and Brazil.
The Lab is set to run from April 26 to June 28 2024 virtually with a break in summer aside from the mandatory in-person kick-off on May 3-4 at the Newmark J-School in New York.
Hannah Ajakaiye is a Nigerian award-winning journalist who started out with the Nations Newspaper as a Campus reporter. Now based in California US, she is a a John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford where she is working on a project focused on combating disinformation on Encrypted Social Media Apps (EMA).
Monsur Hussain is a Computer Scientist with a track record of creating and leading innovative products and solutions initiatives. Hussain, now with CJID, uses his expertise in Media Tech, AI Ethics, Intelligent Automation, Web Development, and Project Management to lead media tech solutions at the organisation.
