BCYCNA and Google set Vancouver AI workshop for journalists

The BC & Yukon Community News Media Association will hold a free hands-on training session on Google’s artificial-intelligence tools for journalists in downtown Vancouver on Nov. 26, followed immediately by an industry media mixer.

The 60-minute session begins at 3 p.m. and will examine uses of AI in research, content creation and investigative journalism, alongside information verification and protection against modern threats. It is open to professionals in newspapers, digital publications, television, radio, podcasts and emerging media; journalism students and faculty are also encouraged to attend.

Google News trainer Iain Christie will lead the workshop. Christie has more than 20 years of experience across digital media, technology, publishing and journalism, and has spent four years with the Google News Initiative training people in journalism, audience and revenue work in Canada and the United States.

Participants will be introduced to Pinpoint and NotebookLM for organizing, analyzing and understanding source material; Gemini for everyday reporting tasks and newsroom workflows; and SynthID, which watermarks and identifies material generated through Google’s AI. Pinpoint is designed to search large document collections, transcribe and search audio and video, and turn similarly structured tables into sortable spreadsheets.

Cristina Caballero, a Google News partner manager, said the partnership was intended to bring practical AI training to publishers across British Columbia and Yukon. She said Google hoped the tools would help journalists improve reporting, streamline workflows and find ways to engage readers while continuing to produce community journalism.

The event comes as Canadian newsrooms take differing, often cautious approaches to generative AI. A survey of 400 journalists in Canada and at least five other countries found that two-thirds had used generative-AI tools at work, while 36% did not know whether their organization had a policy governing their use. Common newsroom applications include transcription, research, document analysis, translation, audio editing, search optimization and headline generation.

The post-training mixer is intended for attendees to reconnect, meet colleagues and exchange ideas. Attendance is limited to 75 people, requires advance RSVP, and venue details will be supplied after registration.