OpenAI has launched a broad, multi-part initiative aimed at bolstering the journalism ecosystem through tools, training, partnerships, shared learning, and practical support for students, educators, journalists, and news organizations.
The effort begins by working with the next generation of reporters at two U.S. journalism programs: the Tow-Knight Center for Journalism Futures at CUNY’s Newmark J-School and the Knight Lab at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
For the 2026–2027 academic year, OpenAI is collaborating closely with those two centers and will provide more than 400 ChatGPT Edu 1 subscriptions to interested graduate students and faculty at Newmark and Medill.
Why it matters now
Students entering journalism programs today will begin careers in a particularly dynamic and challenging period for the news industry. AI is already assisting reporters, editors, and business teams with faster analysis of public records, translating stories for wider audiences, uncovering patterns in large datasets, searching archives, improving reader experiences, aiding marketing, building new products, and allowing more time for core tasks: reporting, verification, storytelling, strengthening business models, and serving communities.
For journalism schools, this presents an opportunity to ensure graduates not only understand how AI is changing the profession, but also know how to use it thoughtfully, creatively, ethically, and responsibly to strengthen journalistic practice and business operations. OpenAI’s collaborations with the Newmark and Medill communities aim to help achieve that outcome.
Leaders’ statements
Gina Chua, Executive Director of the Tow-Knight Center, said: “Generative AI is a transformative technology that will remake the information landscape, and one that the journalism industry will need to adapt to and shape in order to fulfill our mission of informing the public. We intend for the Newmark community to be at the forefront of this transformation, and it’s critical that they learn about and be immersed in this technology. We’re very grateful to OpenAI for making the tools available to our students and faculty so they can better prepare themselves for this future.”
Jeremy Gilbert, Medill Professor and Knight Chair in Digital Media Strategy, said: “The media industry is rapidly evolving, and AI is a major driver of this change. The Knight Lab is committed to ensuring that any Medill graduate students who want to use the latest AI tools and techniques can do so without cost being a barrier. Offering equity of access is crucial when incorporating new technologies. The Knight Lab has been working at the intersection of media and AI for more than a decade. This support from OpenAI helps us to continue to explore the future of media and technology, allowing faculty to teach and practice journalism in countless new ways.”
Tom Rubin, Chief of Intellectual Property and Content at OpenAI, added: “Over the past three years, OpenAI has partnered closely with leaders across the news industry to help both established and aspiring journalists make the most of AI, while keeping their human expertise front and center. We’re excited to see what the next generation of reporters and editors will accomplish with AI as they carry forward journalism’s proud tradition of serving communities through their vital work. OpenAI is expanding on our longstanding commitment to journalism and furthering our mission by providing students and faculty at the Newmark J-School at CUNY and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern access to the technology, sharing successes and challenges, and engaging in deep dialogues about strengthening journalism’s future.”
Not just access: experimentation and responsible workflows
OpenAI emphasizes that access to technology alone is insufficient. Students need opportunities to experiment, develop responsible workflows, understand AI’s limitations, and learn where human judgment remains essential.
Through the Tow-Knight Center and Knight Lab programs, Newmark and Medill students will explore how AI can support their journalism while preserving the key roles of reporters, editors, producers, and newsroom leaders.
Part of a longer-term commitment
This initiative builds on OpenAI’s yearslong support for journalism. In 2023, OpenAI provided a grant to help launch the Ethics and Journalism Initiative at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, which examines, among other things, the relationship between AI and journalism.
OpenAI has also continued industry dialogue and training this year, hosting meetings and trainings at conferences including the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. Those convenings brought together reporters, editors, producers, students, educators, newsroom leaders, and media entrepreneurs from communities that have long shaped how journalism serves different audiences.
These engagements have helped OpenAI refine practical examples and inform the expansion of the OpenAI Academy for News Organizations, a learning hub that offers practical training, newsroom-relevant use cases, playbooks, and real-world examples for journalists and publishers using AI.
Finally, ChatGPT Edu offers enterprise-level privacy, permissions, and administrative controls; data in Edu workspaces is not used to train OpenAI’s models.
Next steps
The Tow-Knight Center and the Knight Lab are the first partners in this phase of OpenAI’s journalism work. Additional phases are actively being developed to extend tools, training, partnerships, shared learning, and practical enablement across the journalism education ecosystem, with the goal of preparing future journalists with the skills, fluency, and confidence they will need before entering newsrooms.
