Join Us for the Hacks/Hackers AI x Journalism Summit 2025 (May 7–8)

Registration | Speakers | Sessions

The 2024 election campaign demonstrates that media disruption is only just beginning. And, with deregulation of all kinds promised by the Trump administration combined with the accelerating development of AI, there promises to be an explosion of new ways to deliver and consume information. The news media needs to fundamentally rethink what news and information products should be in the AI era , while journalists must develop expertise in investigating and reporting on how AI systems affect our communities, from automated decision-making to algorithmic bias.

In order to help journalists lead and thrive through this transformation, Hacks/Hackers and host partners The Real News Network, The Baltimore Beat, Nordic Press Center and The Asian American Journalists Association are convening the first-ever AI x Journalism Summit in Baltimore from May 7–8.

Journalists, technologists and innovators will spend two days exploring how AI can enhance journalism and information. The Summit will include practical workshops, real-world case studies and collaborative sessions, all aimed at showing participants how to use AI to strengthen reporting, streamline workflows, create more impactful stories and build innovative news products.

There will be three tracks at the Summit, all focused on how AI is transforming journalism and intended to give reporters, editors, product managers and technologists practical skills and insights in the rapidly evolving media landscape:

Track 1: Reporting on AI

With AI being integrated into more parts of everyone’s lives, journalists will play an essential role in documenting the effects of algorithms on people’s lives and holding institutions accountable.

Track 2: Using AI

Learn practical ways to incorporate leading AI tools into your workflow – from automated transcription and translation to using large language models for research and analysis.

Track 3: Building with AI

What do future media products look like when they leverage the power of generative AI? How will we reimagine user interfaces, discovery, distribution and monetization of news and information products?

Speakers

Speakers so far include:

Aimee Rinehart

Aimee is the senior product manager AI strategy for The Associated Press. Before joining AP, she was the deputy director of First Draft's New York bureau helping journalists and newsrooms to identify, verify and report on mis- and disinformation through the 2018 and 2020 U.S. election cycles.

Alex Mahadevan

Alex is director of MediaWise, Poynter’s digital media literacy project that teaches people of all ages how to spot misinformation online. As director, Alex oversees program and curriculum development, research and editorial content for MediaWise, which has reached more than 80 million people in 12 countries. He follows and writes about the use of generative AI models in journalism and their potential to spread misinformation, and co-wrote Poynter’s AI ethics guide. Prior to joining the staff at Poynter, Alex worked as a data journalist at the personal finance startup The Penny Hoarder. Alex also served as the news innovation editor at Observer Media Group.

Amy Mitchell

Amy is executive director of the Center For News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI). As past director of journalism research at Pew Research Center, Amy was responsible for the Center's research related to news and information.

Benjamin Toff

Ben is an Associate Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Director of the Minnesota Journalism Center. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Center for the Study of Political Psychology and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. He studies news audiences and political engagement, public opinion, and changing journalistic practices. He is the author of Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism (2024, Columbia University Press, with Ruth Palmer and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen). From 2020-2023, as Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, he led a multi-country research project studying trust in news.

Darla Cameron

Darla is chief product officer for the Texas Tribune, guides product development and management, engineering and design. Prior to the Tribune, Cameron was at The Washington Post, where she used data to tell stories about politics, policy and the economy. Darla also worked in Florida at the Tampa Bay Times and completed a fellowship at the Poynter Institute.

Justin Hendrix

Justin is the CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit media venture concerned with the intersection of technology and democracy. Previously, he was Executive Director of NYC Media Lab. He spent over a decade at The Economist in roles including Vice President, Business Development & Innovation.

Teo Soares & Nicole Bleuel

Teo and Nicole first collaborated at the Google Creative Lab, where they each led special-projects teams focused on launching key features and products, shaping Google’s AI strategy, and driving innovation. Their work included drafting Google’s AI principles, launching LaMDA 1 and 2, and developing AI Test Kitchen.

Teo next worked as senior product manager for the Gemini API, the company's generative AI model, while Nicole became a senior product manager role leading a team to reimagine Search for younger generations.

Teo and Nicole now help organizations navigate and make use of AI by facilitating workshops and hands-on prototyping.

Marie Gilot

Marie is the Executive Director of J+, the professional training arm of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. J+'s international, hybrid programs include the AI Journalism Labs and the Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. Marie was previously a program officer at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami where she oversaw a portfolio of journalism and innovation grants. She started her career in journalism in El Paso, Texas.

Nicholas Diakopoulos

Nick is a Professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science (by courtesy) at Northwestern University where he is Director of the Computational Journalism Lab (CJL). His research is broadly oriented around topics related to Computational Journalism with active research projects on AI, automation, and algorithms in news production and distribution. He also pursues research in the area of AI, Ethics, & Society with projects related to algorithmic accountability, transparency, and impact. He is the author of the award-winning book Automating the News: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Media from Harvard University Press.

Nikita Roy

Nikita is a data scientist, journalist, and Harvard-recognized AI futurist. She is currently a Knight Fellow at the International Center for Journalists, focusing on AI literacy in the news industry. She leads the AI Journalism Lab and serves on the AI advisory board at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. She also leads the development of the AI Discovery Course at JournalismAI at Polis – the journalism think tank at the London School of Economics.

Patrick Boehler

Patrick is the founder of Gazzetta, a Tallinn and New York-based media research lab that focuses on autocratic settings. He previously led Radio Free Europe's digital transformation, establishing its audience research, marketing, and product departments, along with its journalism Academy and Innovation Lab. His experience spans executive newsroom roles, award-winning reporting for The New York Times and South China Morning Post, co-founding the Environmental Reporting Collective, and teaching at the University of Hong Kong. Boehler holds a doctorate in political science and was a 2023 Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellow at Columbia University.

Scott Klein

Scott is a leader in journalism and technology, known for driving innovative projects that empower newsrooms and engage communities. At Automattic, he led the creation of the Knight Election Hub, connecting over 500 newsrooms with tools and services to enhance 2024 election coverage. Previously, he directed product development at New York City’s largest nonprofit newsroom, overseeing platform migrations, interactive data journalism, and AI-driven news applications. At ProPublica, he managed teams focused on editorial product development and data storytelling, leading groundbreaking initiatives like Electionland, which supported local journalists covering voting rights, and Documenting Hate, which tracked the rise of hate crimes in the U.S. His work bridges journalism and technology to create impactful tools and stories.

Tazbia Fatima

Tazbia is a newsroom AI and automation engineer at Hearst DevHub, where she builds AI-powered tools and reader experiences to support local newsrooms. Previously an AI and data fellow at The City, she developed generative AI prototypes for audience engagement and editorial data analysis. A recipient of the 2024 Magic Grant from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Fatima holds a dual master’s degree in journalism and computer science from Columbia University.

Sessions

Programming for the Summit is still in progress, please check back for updates. As well, follow #HHAIJournalism2025 for updates.

Lessons from The City: Using AI to Map Coverage Blind Spots
Do your newsroom’s coverage choices reflect the diversity of the community you cover? Generative AI can help you answer that question better than ever before. In 2023, THE CITY used ChatGPT to analyze its entire archive of more than 4,000 stories and to identify the New York City neighborhoods it covers, and presented the results on a map of the city. In this session, two of the people who worked on the project will walk you through their process and share how you can apply the technique to your own archive.

Digital Democracy at CalMatters: Covering State Legislatures With the Help of AI
What if you had an easy way to analyze every word, action, and dollar related to your local legislators? CalMatters, in partnership with the California Polytechnic State University, has built an AI enhanced system to glean vast amounts of data from legislative hearing videos, websites, third party sources and then generate ranked tip sheets for reporters to help identify newsworthy events. This session will explain the system which extracts legislative hearing data, how we use AI to turn that data into possible story ideas for reporters, and how LLMs can be used to safely generate AI tip sheets.

From Pilots to Performance: Measuring AI's Real Impact in Newsrooms
Leading AI researchers Nicholas Diakopoulos and Nikita Roy present evidence-based approaches for evaluating AI in journalism. Drawing from extensive newsroom studies, learn actionable frameworks for measuring AI effectiveness, identifying success metrics, and addressing key challenges.

How to Become a Better Manager with AI
Presented by Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
Explore how AI is reshaping managerial roles and decision-making processes in newsrooms and media organizations. In this panel, instructors and participants in the AI Journalism Lab: Leadership will share the specific techniques and tools that helped them leverage AI effectively in their leadership with confidence and foresight.

The Economics of AI Content: Building Sustainable Models for Journalism
As artificial intelligence reshapes the media landscape, one of the most pressing questions facing journalism is how to build sustainable economic models that fairly compensate news organizations and journalists while enabling AI innovation. This panel brings together leaders from both traditional media and AI technology to explore the challenges and opportunities in creating viable business models for AI-powered journalism.

AI Policies vs Practice: Mind the Global Gap
From US AI executive orders to EU regulation, how do emerging policies shape AI practices worldwide? Experts examine regulatory impacts on innovation, cross-border challenges, and practical implementation realities and what does all of this mean for journalism?

AI-Powered Audience Research: From Data to Insights
Learn how Gazzetta's research team used AI tools to understand information needs in China, developing scalable methods for global audience research. Through practical examples, discover how AI can accelerate pattern recognition and enhance traditional research methods.

Registration

When: May 7 - 8, 2025
Where: The Real News Network, Baltimore
Cost:
- Early Bird: $40 before Feb. 15)
- Standard ticket: $7o
- Student: $20