AI Spotlight Training for Southeastern European Journalists

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The Pulitzer Center, in partnership with iMEdD (Incubator for Media Education and Development), is seeking applications from journalists based in southeastern Europe to attend a two-day, in-person training program on AI accountability reporting led by award-winning journalists Karen Hao and Gabriel Geiger.

The hands-on training—part of the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series and facilitated by iMEdD’s training pillar, Ideas Zone—provides an opportunity for journalists to learn how to effectively cover the use of artificial intelligence and its impact on our daily lives, follow AI supply chains, and document harms.

The hype around generative AI is supercharging the spread of AI tools worldwide. The Pulitzer Center and iMEdD recognize the need for journalists in southeastern Europe to be equipped to cover the different facets of this fast-moving story.

As journalists, the onus is on us to reveal, interrogate, and explain this technology's rapid and widespread integration. Where is AI being used? Where is it working or breaking? Who is being harmed, and who stands to profit? How can our audiences make sense of what it all means for them?

More information about the training program and coaches is available here. Note that this is not a course about using AI tools in the newsroom.

The Pulitzer Center will select 12 journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey to attend the training in Thessaloniki, Greece, on May 1-2, 2025. The venue address will be announced soon.

Successful applicants should be able to demonstrate basic understanding of AI technologies and a genuine interest in AI/tech accountability reporting in their communities.

For the selected participants, all expenses related to air travel, airport transfers, hotel accommodation, food, and travel insurance will be covered.

Participants are expected to arrive on April 30, 2025, and depart on May 3, 2025.

At the end of the training, participants can pitch to the Pulitzer Center for a grant or a fellowship to support an AI accountability reporting project. They will also join the Center’s broader AI Accountability Network, a global consortium of journalists investigating and documenting AI's impacts on people and communities.

How to apply

Please send your application through this link.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 12, 2025, at 11:59pm (Eastern European Standard Time). The Pulitzer Center will get back to you within two weeks after the deadline.

For queries, please contact the AI Spotlight Series team at ​​[email protected].

About the coaches and organizers

Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society. She was formerly a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a foreign correspondent covering China’s technology industry for The Wall Street Journal, and a senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review. Her work is regularly taught in universities and cited by governments.

Gabriel Geiger is an Athens-based investigative journalist specializing in surveillance and algorithmic accountability reporting. He is currently an investigative journalist at Lighthouse Reports. His work has appeared in WIRED, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and The Guardian, among others.

iMEdD is an international nonprofit organization based in Greece, dedicated to enhancing transparency, credibility, and independence in journalism. It was founded in 2018 with the exclusive support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

The Pulitzer Center is a nonprofit journalism and education organization dedicated to raising awareness of underreported global issues. Since the launch of the AI Spotlight Series in 2024, the Pulitzer Center has conducted over 20 online and in-person sessions, training nearly 2,000 journalists worldwide.