The Lenfest Institute for Journalism has announced the next phase of its AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program, expanding a program that has become the largest AI fellowship initiative in American journalism.
Launched in 2024 with AI engineering fellows at 11 major American news organizations, the program has focused on helping local news organizations use AI to drive innovation, strengthen business sustainability and adopt emerging technology responsibly.
The next phase will receive a new $5 million commitment from OpenAI, along with up to $5 million in software credits and engineering support. OpenAI has doubled its earlier support for the program.
The program places full-time AI technologists inside news organizations to work with newsroom leaders, reporters, product teams, revenue staff and executives. Fellows identify organization-specific challenges and develop practical AI solutions, along with safe, transparent and ethical policies.
Across the 11 participating organizations, fellows have worked on audience engagement, news products, investigative research, advertising, reader revenue, reporting impact and community reach. Several fellows are also expected to continue as full-time employees at participating organizations.
At a Philadelphia news organization, fellows developed Dewey, a tool for searching decades of archived reporting, and Scrape, which turned a reporting task of about 15 hours per week into a daily digest of potential story leads.
At a Chicago public media organization, AI-assisted translation helped speed up Spanish-language coverage, while audio transcription made decades-old news and cultural archives more accessible. Other projects focused on advertising prospects, donor modelling, audience personalisation, subscription growth, public-meeting monitoring, print-to-digital production and operational efficiency.
The program found that successful AI adoption depends heavily on trust, collaboration and a clear understanding of organisational needs. Fellows were hired locally and worked directly within the organisations, helping build solutions around real newsroom and business challenges.
“The most valuable lesson of the Lenfest AI Collaborative and Fellowship’s first two years is that responsible AI adoption is less about the technology and more about trust.
The fellows have helped their news organizations build practical tools and drive culture change from the inside — through clear guardrails, policy standards, and open communication,” said Lenfest Institute Executive Director and CEO Jim Friedlich.
“Over the first two years of this partnership, it’s been wonderful to see so many practical examples of journalists using AI as a tool to help deliver quality local news,” said Tom Rubin, OpenAI Chief of Intellectual Property and Content.
The next phase will bring in more news organisations while expanding technical capabilities to turn successful fellowship projects into reusable tools, frameworks, plugins, implementation guides, playbooks and technical resources for hundreds of news organisations.
The program will also continue encouraging fellows to share code, ideas and implementation strategies so that solutions developed by one organisation can benefit others.
Also read: Viksit Workforce for a Viksit Bharat
Do Follow: The Mainstream LinkedIn | The Mainstream Facebook | The Mainstream Youtube | The Mainstream Twitter
About us:
The Mainstream is a premier platform delivering the latest updates and informed perspectives across the technology business and cyber landscape. Built on research-driven, thought leadership and original intellectual property, The Mainstream also curates summits & conferences that convene decision makers to explore how technology reshapes industries and leadership. With a growing presence in India and globally across the Middle East, Africa, ASEAN, the USA, the UK and Australia, The Mainstream carries a vision to bring the latest happenings and insights to 8.2 billion people and to place technology at the centre of conversation for leaders navigating the future.