According to PYMNTS.com, OpenAI has rolled out a new AI Academy for News Organizations. The on-demand training program, announced in a Wednesday news release, was developed with partners like the American Journalism Project and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. It’s designed to help news teams leverage AI for research, reporting, data analysis, and translation. The curriculum covers core AI concepts and newsroom-specific applications while emphasizing responsible use. This initiative arrives as OpenAI faces rising legal scrutiny and copyright lawsuits from major publishers like The New York Times, a conflict the company publicly called “surprising and without merit” in early 2024. OpenAI also cited existing partnerships with publishers including News Corp, Axios, and the Financial Times.
The Partnership Playbook
Here’s the thing: this academy isn’t just a random training course. It’s a strategic move. OpenAI is trying to build a moat of goodwill and practical collaboration with the very industry that’s suing it. By partnering with influential journalism nonprofits and name-dropping big publishing partners, they’re creating a narrative. The message is basically, “Look, we’re here to help the *good guys* in news, not just scrape their content.” It’s a classic “divide and conquer” tactic, offering tools and support to smaller or mid-tier orgs while the legal battles with the giants play out. And let’s be real, getting AI embedded in daily editorial workflows is the ultimate goal for adoption. Once these tools are indispensable, the dynamics of those legal fights might just shift.
Navigating the Legal Minefield
So, can you teach responsible AI use while you’re in court over how you used the data to build the AI in the first place? That’s the awkward tension at the core of this. OpenAI’s statement is careful, stressing that “regurgitation” of publisher content is a “priority issue for mitigation.” But that’s the whole rub, isn’t it? Publishers argue the models themselves are built on that content. The academy feels like an attempt to pivot the conversation from past training data to future utility. It’s saying, “Forget how we got here for a second—let’s talk about what this tech can do for you tomorrow.” Whether newsrooms, especially those not already in partnership deals, buy that argument is a huge open question.
The Future of AI in News
I think this signals where the industry is headed, like it or not. AI is going to be embedded in the news process. The focus on “near-term value” and “operational efficiency” is a direct appeal to an industry under constant financial pressure. Translation, data analysis, research—these are areas where AI can clearly assist without (theoretically) writing the front-page story itself. But the concerns around trust, accuracy, and employment that OpenAI acknowledges are massive. An online academy can offer guidelines, but it can’t solve the fundamental economic anxieties or the deep skepticism many journalists feel. The real test will be if this program fosters genuine, critical understanding of AI’s limits, or if it just becomes a slick onboarding tool for a future where newsrooms are even more dependent on a single company’s technology stack.
