New sessions from ProPublica, CalMatters and more at the AI x Journalism Summit
Plus sharing what you're vibe coding at our show and tell session
What happens when you embed an AI engineer in an investigative newsroom? At ProPublica, it led to “Spreadsheet Inference” — a method that combines the rigor of spreadsheet reporting with the scale of AI. Aaron Brezel will share how at the 2026 AI x Journalism Summit, May 13–14 in Baltimore.
He’s one of several new additions to the program. Derek Willis from the University of Maryland will show how to extract beat books from news archives using language models — and how to catch when they hallucinate sources. Sonya Quick from CalMatters built “Giving Editor,” an AI coaching system that sharpens editorial judgment without generating copy. Sean Vanderaa from Gigafact will detail how they use AI to index and analyze political figures’ public statements across platforms. And Peder Hammerskov from the Danish School of Media and Journalism will share frameworks for moving newsrooms from AI anxiety to fluency.
These join previously announced sessions from The New York Times, CNN, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Minnesota Star Tribune, Harvard Kennedy School and more. View the full program here!
Vibe coding show and tell
AI coding tools have gotten dramatically more capable in recent months. So we invited people to show what they’ve been building in an online show and tell session. The energy was great — and it wouldn’t be a vibe coding session without its own vibe-coded recap website, thanks to Joe Amditis from the Center for Cooperative Media, who helped lead the event.
For those looking for an introduction to vibe coding, we’re also looking at putting together an online workshop for people with no coding experience. Please fill out this form if you're interested.
In Austin for SXSW?
Join us Monday, March 16 for AI x Journalism Day at The Texas Tribune. A full day of talks and networking, in partnership with Poynter and supported by the MacArthur Foundation. Registration here.
AI x journalism news
- Anthropic launches think tank amid Pentagon blacklist fight (The Verge) — Jack Clark moves to lead the new Anthropic Institute, combining three research teams to study AI’s large-scale implications, days after Anthropic sued the DOD over a supply-chain blacklist.
- Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs raises $1.03 billion to build world models (TechCrunch) — LeCun’s post-Meta venture raised at a $3.5B valuation, pursuing an alternative to the dominant large language model approach.
- 4 key takeaways from the 2026 Knight Media Forum (Substack) — ... including how they’re thinking about AI and the importance of human-centered approaches.
- AI Search and News (Tow Center for Digital Journalism) — Panel on how AI-driven search is changing news distribution, with researchers and industry experts discussing transparency and accountability.
Upcoming events
- March 16, Austin, AI x Journalism Day 2026
- March 30–April 1, ONA26 Annual Conference
- May 4–8, Berlin, INMA World Congress 2026
- May 6–7, Vienna, IPI Media Innovation Festival
- May 13–14, Baltimore, Hacks/Hackers AI x Journalism Summit 2026
- May 28–31, Mechelen, Belgium, Dataharvest 2026
- June 1–3, Marseille, WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress
Journalism jobs
- Professor/Knight Chair in Journalism and Technology, University of Florida (Florida)
- Fellowship Program Director, Tarbell Center for AI Journalism (London/San Francisco)
- Curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University (Massachusetts)
- Data Journalist, The Guardian (London)
- Senior tech reporter, CNBC (US)
- Senior Analyst, OCCRP PRO, OCCRP (Remote)
- Deputy Director of Investigations, The Sentry (Remote)
- Assistant News Director, Hearst Television (US)
