Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of images or documents, or hours of video footage you needed to sort through for a report? Training a machine to do the work for you may be the answer. Learn how artificial intelligence can improve your reporting with the new course from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and instructor John Keefe, "Hands-on Machine Learning Solutions for Journalists." The four-week Big Online Course (BOC) runs from Nov. 18 to Dec. 15, 2019 and costs $95, which includes a certificate for those who successfully complete the course requirements. "At the end of this class, students will have a much better understanding of machine learning. They will actually be able to sort documents, especially images, based on the criteria they set up," said Keefe, who uses these techniques in his work as investigations editor at Quartz.

The term "artificial intelligence" has been around since 1956, and yet many journalists are unfamiliar with its history and impact on the world today, even as its influence grows everywhere, including on how we gather and report the news. The next massive open online course (MOOC) in Spanish, and the Knight Center's first in partnership with Microsoft, will familiarize students with the foundations of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it impacts the news industry. "Artificial Intelligence: How to cover AI and understand its impact on journalism," will run from Oct. 22 to Nov. 25, 2018 and will be taught by Sandra Crucianelli, a veteran instructor for Knight Center MOOCs and a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). "The course will be a wonderful opportunity for those who have not yet become familiar with artificial intelligence technologies," Crucianelli said. "We will be sharing definitions, but also analyzing applications, examples and there also will be online discussions. For example, will robots replace journalists? This is a question that many of us ask and I believe the exchange of opinions will be very interesting."