Google is organizing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) academy to train journalists. Developed through the Google News Initiative, this initiative is supported by a group of experts from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is aimed at small newsrooms.

In all, 20 media professionals will have the opportunity to explore the potential of AI in relation to journalism, and the training will take place online. The program is free of charge and will last six weeks, starting next September.

According to Google, the faculty of this academy are industry-leading journalists and researchers working precisely at the intersection between journalism and AI. As for the chosen trainees, they will be journalists and programmers from small news organizations in the EMEA region - that is, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

At the end of the program, participants should have a practical understanding of the challenges and opportunities of AI technologies. To this end, they will be confronted with examples of how to use AI to make journalists' work more efficient by automating repetitive tasks, for example, such as transcribing interviews or researching images.

AI could also help optimize newsroom processes through insights into which content is producing the most engagement with the audience.

The idea is that this technology can contribute to building new audiences, while at the same time guaranteeing journalists more time to dedicate to creative aspects, for example.

For now, the AI training academy is a pilot project, but Google plans to extend the program to other regions as early as next year.