Technology won't wait for journalism. Neither will we.

As platforms, protocols and AI models continuously transform at a rapid pace, newsrooms are forced to react. The American Press Institute calls this the “research-practice gap” – because researchers, technologists and journalists all operate in disconnected siloes, innovation happens to journalism instead of through journalism.

Hacks/Hackers is different. We look ahead, match the pace of technology and empower newsrooms to succeed during this time of great transformation.

Your donation helps journalism stay competitive with emerging technology.

Why donating to support our independence matters:

Hacks/Hackers asks the questions that others avoid. We create spaces for honest, technical, unfiltered discussions about what AI is doing to journalism, without corporate scripts or vendor agendas.

Independence lets us pivot fast, share failures and move from concept to implementation in months.

What makes Hacks/Hackers different:

Most organizations study challenges. We build solutions.

• Our model is rapid, translational and open.
• Our hackathons produce functioning ideas.
• Matchmaking pairs journalists with technologists to solve real newsroom problems.
• Direct deployment gives newsrooms resources when they lack the budget or capacity to experiment on their own.
• Learn-in-public documentation becomes playbooks, not PDFs that gather dust.

Your donation will power our ambitious plans for 2026:

• Host the second AI x Journalism Summit, scaling a national community of practitioners shaping responsible AI. 
• Run regional hackathons on emerging problems before they reach crisis scale.
• Publish open frameworks and prototypes that help the field adapt faster.
• Maintain the independence required to speak plainly about AI's impact on civic information.

We stay small by design, fast by necessity and independent by choice.

Technology keeps accelerating. Each shift in AI reshapes how information is created, distributed and weaponized. Journalism needs an organization that can pivot in weeks rather than years, test new ideas in real time and share what works across the field.

Support journalism’s technology strike force!

Paul Cheung, Strategic Advisor, Hacks/Hackers

P.S. Our Newsroom AI Lab guides participants from prototype to field adoption in just months. That’s the speed journalism needs now.