The Lenfest Institute launches $10 million AI news program for big-city dailies with backing from OpenAI and Microsoft

On Tuesday, The Lenfest Institute launched a $10 million AI and local news program in partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft. The program will initially fund projects for AI adoption at five independently owned U.S. metro news organizations — The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Sun-Times owner Chicago Public Media, The Seattle Times, and Newsday in Long Island. Three additional organizations are slated to receive funding in a second round of grants.

OpenAI and Microsoft have each committed $2.5 million in direct funding to the program, which will be used to hire an AI fellow for two years at each of the local news outlets. The companies have also promised $2.5 million in both OpenAI and Microsoft Azure credits to be spread across the participating newsrooms. These amount to vouchers for the cost of running a large language model (LLM) like GPT or other AI computing services offered by the companies.

“Through these fellowships — and by sharing results with the broader news industry — we will help empower local newsrooms to explore, implement and advocate for AI business solutions that uphold the highest ethical standards while strengthening their future prospects,” said Jim Friedlich, executive director and CEO of The Lenfest Institute. Though Lenfest has a particular emphasis on Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in its work, the nonprofit has long offered grants nationwide with the goal of building more sustainable business models for independent local news.

Each news organization submitted an AI-focused project to Lenfest as part of its application. The Philadelphia Inquirer, which is owned by The Lenfest Institute, plans to build a conversational AI chatbot that surfaces content from its archives. Chicago Public Media, which owns both The Chicago Sun-Times and the radio station WBEZ, will use AI for transcription and summarization, as well as for translations to expand its audience reach. The Seattle Times will use AI to assist in its advertising business, integrating the technology into its sales support and sales analytics.

“As an industry, we must embrace and harness new technologies to drive innovation and future viability across our businesses,” Aron Pilhofer, chief product officer for the Minnesota Star Tribune, said in a statement. The daily newspaper plans to experiment with AI summarization and discovery tools using its grant funding.

The program is the second major AI and local news initiative to launch with backing from OpenAI. Back in the summer of 2023, OpenAI announced a $5 million partnership with the venture philanthropy firm the American Journalism Project (AJP). Similarly, that program has since provided direct funding to 13 of AJP’s portfolio nonprofit newsrooms to bolster AI experimentation, including The Marshall Project, The City, and Sahan Journal. The program, however, does not embed staff with AI expertise into participating newsrooms.

Earlier this month, OpenAI also announced a new contract licensing deal with Hearst, which encompassed more than 40 of the company’s local newspapers properties, including the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Haven Register and the San Antonio Express News. Unlike in its contract licensing deals, OpenAI will not receive direct access to the published archives of outlets in the Lenfest program.

“While nothing will replace the central role of reporters, we believe that AI technology can help in the research, investigation, distribution, and monetization of important journalism,” Tom Rubin, chief of intellectual property and content at OpenAI, said in a statement. “Local news is a particularly vulnerable area of journalism, and we believe AI can help it thrive.”