Meet the 25 media leaders and innovators of the inaugural AI Journalism Lab cohort
The AI Journalism Lab at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, created in collaboration with Microsoft, is thrilled to introduce its inaugural cohort of 25 journalists, media leaders, academics, and artificial intelligence practitioners. These individuals are finding ways to navigate and harness generative AI in ethical ways that reinforce trust from communities and increase impact for their news organizations and the larger media industry.
“We’re thrilled to welcome these exceptional newsroom leaders and journalists to our program and eagerly anticipate witnessing the innovative projects they will embark on,” said Program Lead Nikita Roy, who is also the host of the Newsroom Robots podcast and is an ICFJ Knight Fellow. “Their diverse perspectives and expertise will undoubtedly shape the future of AI-powered journalism, inspiring impactful change within our industry.”
Our cohort comes from numerous countries across the world, including France, United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Philippines, Germany, Mongolia, India, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Nigeria. They come from all levels of management in editorial, business, audience or tech within news organizations or academia.
“By harnessing the potential of AI technology, journalists will have the tools needed to streamline operations, maximize efficiency, and foster long-term sustainability,” said Noreen Gillespie, Journalism Director at Microsoft’s Democracy Forward.
The Lab will run from April 26 to June 28, 2024, with a break for the summer, and from September 27 to October 11, 2024. The program is virtual except for a mandatory in-person kick-off at the Newmark J-School in New York May 3-4.
AI JOURNALISM LAB INAUGURAL COHORT
Hannah Ajakaiye
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: California, United States
Country of Origin: Nigeria
Organization: FactsMatterNG
Role: Founding Director
Hannah Ajakaiye is an award-winning journalist with a passion for leading innovation in African newsrooms. A native of Nigeria, she is a John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford where she is working on a project focused on combating disinformation on Encrypted Social Media Apps (EMA). She has also led fact-checking initiatives on elections and the Covid-19 pandemic as a Knight fellow with the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ). Hannah is the founding director of FactsMatterNG, an initiative collaborating with content creators and fact checking organizations to restore information integrity on digital platforms.
Undral Amarsaikhan
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Country of Origin: Mongolia
Organization: TenGer TV Mongolia
Role: CEO & Co-Founder
Undral Amarsaikhan is the co-founder and CEO of TenGer TV, one of the leading news broadcasters in Mongolia. Under his leadership, TenGer TV has emerged as a trailblazer in the Mongolian media landscape, championing progressive agendas focused on critical issues such as climate, science, and technology, and setting new standards for journalistic excellence. Prior to his tenure at TenGer TV, Undral co-founded Unread Media, a pioneering hybrid media-tech startup committed to empowering the next generation through innovative storytelling and immersive community events. His commitment to utilizing media as a force for positive change and fostering meaningful dialogue has been the cornerstone of his career.
Zay Arguelles
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: Philippines
Country of Origin:Philippines
Organization: GMA Integrated News Digital Strategy and Innovation Lab (GMA Network Inc.)
Role: Acting Supervising Producer
Zay Arguelles, a Filipino and British national currently based in the Philippines, is employed by GMA Network Inc., the leading broadcast company in the country. In their role as Acting Supervising Producer for GMA Integrated News Digital Strategy and Innovation Lab (DigiLab), Zay oversees various positions, including Executive Producer for the digital documentary program DigiDokyu, Climate Change Communications Specialist, and Innovation Lead. They also concentrate on managing internal collaborations and external partnerships. Zay completed a degree in journalism at City, University of London in 2015, where they took modules in humanitarian reporting and international news. They are a digital and social media native with training to work on different multimedia platforms. Zay is also an enthusiastic reader (with piles of to-be-read books and notes of to-buy lists) and a foodie (known to eat too much and take an unnecessary amount of #foodstagram photos).
Utkarsh Arora
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Noida, India
Country of Origin: India
Organization: Times Internet (Times of India Group)
Role: Senior Director – Product Management
Utkarsh is a seasoned Product & Growth leader with 10+ years of experience at India’s category leading brands across domains – Travel, Advertising, Tech-Logistics & Media, with expertise in subscription programs, churn management, scaling consumer engagement & revenue. Currently, as Senior Director of Product at Times Internet, he leads Data-Products, Platforms & Governance across multiple flagship brands including Economic Times & Times of India. Previously, he has served as a Director on the Regional Board of International News Media Association (INMA), alongside CXOs from South Asia’s top media houses. He has won global recognition from leading industry bodies: US-based INMA’s 30-under-30 award, INMA-Grand Prize Winner, Global Rising Star in Media by UK-based FIPP. In 2022, he was featured in ‘Product50’, the list of 50 most impactful global leaders in Product alongside accomplished leaders from Google, Etsy, AmEx etc. He actively supports journalism sustainability initiatives & has served as a Product expert at INMA, Google News Initiative and the INMA & Meta Journalism Project – Audience Accelerator program.
Ali Ihsan Aydin
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Brussels, Belgium
Country of Origin: Turkey
Organization: Euronews
Role: Editor-in-Chief, Head of Innovation
Ali Ihsan Aydin is a digital media leader with over 20 years of experience in journalism, overseeing multinational newsrooms and spearheading digital editorial development. Throughout his career, Ali has successfully orchestrated the transformation of intricate traditional newsrooms, established pioneering digital editorial teams renowned for delivering consistent audience engagement and revenue growth, and devised innovative editorial workflows. His expertise lies in revolutionizing newsrooms, crafting audience-centric content strategies, and developing captivating editorial products and formats to expand audiences and generate new revenue streams. Ali firmly believes that journalism, empowered by technological advancements, holds greater significance and excitement than ever before. However, he advocates for its evolution to comprehensively understand and meet audience needs, as well as to continually innovate to enhance its value and impact. With a PhD in Political Science and Government from Sciences Po Paris, Ali brings a wealth of academic knowledge to complement their practical experience in the field of journalism.
Dustin Block
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Detroit, Michigan, United States
Country of Origin: United States
Organization: Graham Media Group
Role: Audience Development Lead
Dustin Block is the Audience Development Lead at Graham Media Group, a role in which he oversees audience engagement strategies across multiple platforms, including TV and digital media. With over two decades of experience in local media, Block has made significant contributions to the industry, particularly through innovative content strategies and digital content production.
Caiwei Chen
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: New York, New York, United States
Country of Origin: China
Organization: Rest of World
Role: Reporter
Caiwei Chen is a journalist, writer and podcaster based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently the China reporter at Rest of World, a nonprofit publication that covers technology outside of the Western bubble. Her work has been seen in publications including Wired, South China Morning Post, Protocol, TechNode, Rolling Stone, and Radii in both English and Chinese. She was part of Chaoyang Trap, a Substack newsletter about having fun on the Chinese internet. Caiwei is originally from Xiangyang, Hubei in China, and grew up on the fascinating place of Chinese internet. Her journey in journalism is driven by a deep fascination with China’s vibrant tech scene and rich online culture, as well as the cross-border exchange of business practices and ideas mediated by digital technology. Currently, she is dedicated to writing human stories at the intersection of tech, culture, and society, for audience both inside and outside of the Great Firewall. Caiwei is more online than she would like to admit. On Twitter/X, she is @CaiweiC. Learn more at www.chencaiwei.com.
Russel Chun
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Country of Origin: United States
Organization: Hofstra University
Role: Associate Professor
Russell Chun is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University where he teaches multimedia storytelling, design, and data journalism. His research focuses on visual communication, data visualization, and information design, and has been published in The Journal of Visual Literacy, Visual Studies, and Visual Communication Quarterly, where he serves as an associate editor. Previously, he worked as a medical illustrator, senior producer at an educational publisher, and developer of interactive animations.
David Cohn
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Berkeley, California, United States
Country of Origin: United States
Organization: Advance Local
Role: Senior Director of Research & Development
Over the past fifteen years, David Cohn played a role in early initiatives that explored new ways to create, manage, and distribute news and engage the audience. In 2008, he launched the first platform dedicated to crowdfunding for journalistic projects. Following this he was the Chief Content Officer of Circa, a startup that aimed to transform the news consumption experience on mobile devices. Cohn then served as an Executive Producer at AJ+, a branch of Al Jazeera aimed at redefining how social video could be leveraged by news organizations. Currently, he holds the position of senior director at Advance Digital’s Alpha Group, where he contributes to internal startup projects like JoinSubtext.com and exploring new ideas and strategies within the company.
Selymar Colón
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Country of Origin: Puerto Rico
Organization: GFR Media
Role: Executive Director, Digital
Selymar Colón is the Executive Director for Digital at GFR Media in Puerto Rico. She oversees the digital aspects of leading newspapers El Nuevo Día and Primera Hora. Colón has a background spent the academic year 2019-2020 as a Nieman fellow at Harvard. Before her current role, she was the head of digital news at Univision. She led a team focused on digital storytelling and social media, contributing to Univision’s receipt of top industry honors, including a World Press Photo award for Digital Video. Recognized by The Huffington Post as a prominent Latina under 40 in American politics, Colón has a master’s degree in Investigative Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Business.
Rodney Gibbs
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Country of Origin: United States
Organization: National Trust for Local News
Role: Head of Product and Audience
Rodney is Head of Product and Audience for The National Trust for Local News, which owns over 60 small newsrooms across the U.S. He leads the Trust’s product innovation, artificial intelligence strategy, and audience development efforts. As Chief Product Officer of The Texas Tribune for eight years, he helped grow it into an exemplary digital newsroom. During his tenure, he spearheaded the Tribune’s Revenue Lab, helping news organizations nationwide in discovering new revenue streams and expanding their audiences. With a proven track record of founding and successfully selling two startups, Rodney has also been instrumental in driving digital transformation within traditional media. An active member of the digital journalism community, Rodney serves on the board of the Online News Association and co-chairs the 2024 Online Journalism Awards.
Monsur Hussain
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Country of Origin: Nigeria
Organization: Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development
Role: Head of Innovation
Monsur Hussain is a Computer Scientist with expertise in Media Tech, AI Ethics, Intelligent Automation, Web Development, and Project Management. Currently, he leads the Innovation team at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), where he spearheads the development of impactful media tech solutions.
Blake Montgomery
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: New York, New York, United States
Country of Origin: United States
Organization: The Guardian US
Role: Tech Editor
Blake Montgomery is a journalist and fiction author in New York City, where he edits tech news at The Guardian US. He previously managed and edited the tech news and consumer tech teams at Gizmodo. He has published work in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, BuzzFeed News, and Vice’s Motherboard. He was once arrested and jailed in Seattle for a story on deadly testicular injections.
Lucy Nicholson
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: London, United Kingdom
Country of Origin: United Kingdom, United States, & Poland
Organization: The Associated Press
Role: Director of Photography
Lucy Nicholson is Director of Photography for The Associated Press, where she leads global photo coverage. She has a master’s degree in journalism, science and climate from Columbia University; studied international politics at Penn State; and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she participated in a program in news innovation and leadership. Lucy joined the AP from Reuters, where she led the agency’s photography in Europe. She was previously a staff photographer for Reuters, based in Los Angeles for 17 years. She was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner in Breaking News Photography for Reuters team coverage of migration.
Swagatika Priyadarshini
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: New York, New York, United States
Country of Origin: India
Organization: Reuters News Agency
Role: Director of Strategy & Planning
Swagatika Priyadarshini is the Director of Strategy & Planning at Reuters News Agency. Swagatika has been with Thomson Reuters for more than 10 years, managing versatile roles in strategy and product. In her current role, she is focused on growing the Agency business through strategic initiatives and identifying new opportunities eg. AI, new customer segments etc. She was previously Director of Reuters Connect, the award-winning platform from Reuters. Swagatika is a member of the Agency Leadership Team and is based in New York. She is an avid book-lover, traveler and fitness enthusiast.
Ole Reissman
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Hamburg, Germany
Country of Origin: Germany
Organization: Der Spiegel
Role: Director of AI
Ole Reissmann is a journalist with over 15 years of experience in editorial development, digital innovation, product management, and platform strategies. Throughout his career, he has launched podcasts, apps, newsletters, and a news brand. Ole also teaches at universities and has studied political science and journalism.
Gabriel Ribeiro
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Country of Origin: Brazil
Organization: UOL
Role: Editor
Gabriel Ribeiro, a journalist with over 14 years of editorial experience, nearly nine of which were at UOL, the biggest website in Brazil. Throughout that time, he primarily worked in sections such as Sports and Technology. However, more recently, he spent three years focusing on SEO strategy. Since August 2023, Gabriel has been involved in the field of new artificial intelligence innovations, seeking opportunities for the organization and analyzing AI tools.
Nico Russo
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Country of Origin: Argentina
Organization: SAOViVO
Role: Founder
Nico Russo is the founder of SAOViVO, a free and open-source software that makes live streaming on YouTube more accessible for newsrooms. He has over 15 years of experience managing digital media outlets and launching innovative projects that have earned him several grants and fellowships from organizations like Google News Initiative, Meta, LSE’s Polis, and The International Center for Journalists. Since 2015 he has been a part of Media Party, one of the most important events in Latin America about the use of technology in journalism.
Nick Saffan
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Country of Origin: United States
Organization: The Washington Post
Role: Audience Strategy Editor
Nick Saffan joined the Post Opinions section in 2023, where he works on a variety of audience projects and initiatives. Before that he was a multiplatform editor on the Emerging News Products team.
Ludwig Siegele
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Berlin, Germany
Country of Origin: Germany
Organization: The Economist
Role: Audience Strategy Editor
Ludwig joined The Economist as US technology correspondent in 1998. In 2003 he moved to Berlin as the newspaper’s Germany correspondent, before relocating to London in 2008 to cover the IT industry. In 2019 he returned to San Francisco as US technology editor, before moving again to Berlin as European business editor in early 2022. In early 2024, he became the newspaper’s senior editor for AI initiatives. Ludwig started his journalistic career in 1990 as the Paris business correspondent of Die Zeit, a German weekly. In 1995 he moved from France to California to write about the internet for several German publications. He holds a degree in economics and political science from Cologne University and degrees in journalism from the Kölner Journalistenschule and the Centre de Formation des Journalists (CFJ) in Paris. He is also co-author of a book on SAP (“Matrix der Welt – SAP und der neue globale Kapitalismus”). From November 2018 to March 2019 Ludwig was Mercator Technology Fellow at the policy-planning unit of the German Foreign Office in Berlin.
Clare Spencer
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: United Kingdom
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Organization: Newsquest
Role: AI Project Coordinator
Clare Spencer is a coordinator of a team of local newspaper and online journalists who utilize generative AI. Previously, she worked as a product owner in a research and development team, collaborating with software engineers to create prototypes of tools for journalists. Clare has a background as a journalist herself, with more than a decade of experience in the field.
Chitranshu Tewari
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Delhi, India
Country of Origin: India
Organization: Newslaundry
Role: Director of Product & Revenue
Chitranshu is the Product and Revenue Director at Newslaundry – India’s most successful subscription news media outlet. He has led the organisation’s growth from a few hundred subscribers to a community of more than 60K+ paying readers. For the last eight years, he has led teams that have built and scaled Newslaundry’s business, tech, product, and audience engagement. He and his team have shipped some of the most awarded news products in India – ranging from apps, and websites to native podcast players. He also curates The Media Rumble, an annual media forum that brings together journalists, business leaders, investors and policymakers. His work has been recognised by international awards and honours, including the World Youth Summit Award by the United Nations GAID, the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards, the Laadli Media Award and the INMA Global Media Awards. Outside work, he is an amateur cyclist – always looking to climb the next hill on his bike.
Priyanka Vora
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Current Location: New York, New York, United States
Country of Origin: India
Organization: Axios
Role: Director of Audience
Priyanka Vora is an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection of product, business, and strategy. Currently, she is the Audience Director at Axios and has previously worked for Quartz, Business Insider, Financial Times, Scroll, and Hindustan Times.
Rignam Wangkhang
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Toronto, Canada
Country of Origin: Canada
Organization: CBC Toronto
Role: Community Producer
Rignam Wangkhang is an award-winning journalist and producer. He is currently the Community Producer for CBC Toronto, where he is helping the newsroom experiment with new ways of engaging underserved communities in the GTA. Previously, he was Producer with the CBC Creator Network. In this role he worked with a select roster of digital storytellers to amplify the voices of young, diverse Canadians. Rignam also served as Chair of DiversifyCBC, an Employee Resource Group that champions diversity, fosters belonging and is a catalyst for change in the way CBC thinks about people and programming. After producing a radio documentary about his father’s escape from Tibet, Rignam co-founded The Chyssem Project. The project is a grassroots community oral history initiative to create a permanent archival record and book on the first Tibetans who arrived in Canada in the early 1970s.
Rune Ytreberg
Pronouns: He/him/his
Current Location: Tromsø, Norway
Country of Origin: Norway
Organization: MEDIEHUSET ITROMSØ AS
Role: Data Editor
Rune Ytreberg (55) has for 30 years worked with data-driven and investigative journalism, at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and the daily business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. Since 2020 he has headed iTromsø’s data journalism lab, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop new editorial tools for 70 local newspapers in the Polaris Media Group in Norway. He has a master degree in business journalism and has received several journalism awards for his investigative data journalism. Ytreberg has a long experience in journalism product development and teaches data-driven investigative journalism at several universities. He is currently board member of the AI steering committee in the Polaris Media Group, the AI Group in Norways Mediacompanies Organisation (MBL) and the network Media in Artificial Intelligence (MAI). Ytreberg lives in the city Tromsø in the northern part of Norway with his wife Ingeborg and has four children.
