The next round of the AI and Journalism program has been announced.

How can journ­al­ists cov­er the latest devel­op­ments in arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) research? How can machine learn­ing, com­puter vis­ion and oth­er AI applic­a­tions be used in journ­al­ism? In our Journ­al­ist-in-Res­id­ence pro­gram, you will devel­op your own answers in con­ver­sa­tion with our researchers.

The release of the Chat­G­PT chat­bot by Open AI was the latest example of the impact that AI tech­no­lo­gies can have on text pro­duc­tion, journ­al­ism and the media world. At the same time, the European Uni­on is in the pro­cess of dis­cuss­ing how to com­pre­hens­ively reg­u­late the tech­no­logy. How can journ­al­ists prop­erly report on arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence? And what is behind this buzzword? How can news­rooms make use of AI-based tools?

To give inter­ested journ­al­ists the free­dom to do their own research and devel­op their own pro­jects, RHET AI, with the sup­port of Cyber Val­ley GmbH, offers a Journ­al­ist-in-Res­id­ence Pro­gram. The pro­gram is fun­ded by the Volk­swa­gen Found­a­tion at the Cen­ter for Rhet­or­ic­al Sci­ence Com­mu­nic­a­tion Research on Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (RHET AI) in Tübin­gen. Inter­ested freel­ance or full-time journ­al­ists can apply for a three- to six-month paid stay until April 15th.

Dur­ing this time, the journ­al­ist-in-res­id­ence will be able to com­pletely inde­pend­ently con­duct research on a top­ic of their choice in col­lab­or­a­tion with AI research­ers from vari­ous dis­cip­lines. RHET AI and Cyber Val­ley do not expect any report­ing on AI top­ics or the insti­tu­tions dur­ing this time.

What do we offer?

Dur­ing their stay, the journ­al­ist-in-res­id­ence will be intro­duced to the fun­da­ment­als of machine learn­ing, com­puter vis­ion and robot­ics in back­ground talks and will be able to build their own net­work of inter­na­tion­ally renowned research­ers in the Cyber Val­ley eco­sys­tem. In addi­tion to exclus­ive ment­or­ing, we also offer

• Embed­ding in the RHET AI research team
• Insights into the eco­sys­tem of Cyber Valley
• Free­dom for cre­ativ­ity and reflec­tion on meth­ods, tools and AI-powered journalism
• Paid work contract
• Budget for own events (e.g. work­shops, expert talks, travel)
• Accom­mod­a­tion costs covered

How to apply?

Inter­ested applic­ants should send a cov­er let­ter, cur­riculum vitae and idea paper to Patrick Klü­gel by April 15. The two-page idea paper should describe the journ­al­ist­ic chal­lenge related to AI or with the help of AI to be solved dur­ing the fel­low­ship. Selec­tion cri­ter­ia include journ­al­ist­ic qual­ity and reach, as well as the cre­ativ­ity, rel­ev­ance and feas­ib­il­ity of the self-selec­ted research or pro­ject task. An inde­pend­ent jury will recom­mend up to two can­did­ates from the applic­a­tions received for the pro­gram by early May.

The JIR pro­gram will accept either two journ­al­ists for three-month res­id­en­cies or one journ­al­ist for a six-month res­id­ency. The first three-month slot will begin in July, and the second in Octo­ber 2023. For more inform­a­tion on the call for applic­a­tions and the pro­cess of the Cyber Val­ley Journ­al­ist-in-Res­id­ence Pro­gram, please see this flyer.

Contact for the JIR-Program