Journalist's Toolbox Newsletter

Editor’s note: We’ve launched a new Journalist’s Toolbox page on AI data centers. In includes links to datasets on data centers by country, locations for mapping, etc. We’ll be adding more resources to the page in the coming weeks. Let me begin by saying there is no perfect tool for detecting AI in writing. But I do use some detection tools as part of a larger formula when evaluating news stories, student assignments, press releases and even customer reviews of products.

During the summer, I like to take seminars and workshops to learn new AI skills. Last month, I wrote about OSINT verification tools in two newsletters. Then I took Jeremy Caplan’s excellent Wonder Tools session on vibe coding. “Vibe coding is the practice of describing what you want to build in plain language — and letting AI create it for you. No syntax. No debugging.

I’ve held off on writing a newsletter on building maps with AI tools. I’ve found them to be unreliable, but have seen a breakthrough in the past few weeks when I was at an OSINT training at the University of Wisconsin Public Tech Media Lab. The epiphany came during a data exercise with Guillén Torres, a specialist in action research, methodological experimentation, and data-driven technologies for justice and accountability UC Berkeley Human Rights Center.

Last month, I attended an OSINT training at the University of Wisconsin for journalists, educators, students and others interested in verifying images and video.

May 26, 2026 I’m attending an OSINT tools and investigative journalism workshop this week at the University of Wisconsin, and we’re working with the Brave browser, which has been around for a few years but is pretty new to me. Before I start using a tool, I always research it a bit before downloading it, which is a good practice for all of us. Who created it? What benefits and drawbacks are there to using the tool? You can usually find feedback on the web pretty quickly.

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the upcoming 2nd edition of “Data + Journalism: As Story-Driven Approach to Learning Data Reporting”. You can preorder the book from Routledge this summer. The book is expected to drop in August, just before classes start. Generative AI tools should be used with great caution in the reporting and editing process. But over the past few years, newsrooms have found innovative and economical workflows that produce sound data journalism.

Every semester I have students in my AI and Journalism class at the University of Illinois Chicago do short presentations on tools they’re using as journalists, students or in everyday life. Past newsletters shared some interesting tools from the fall 2024 and fall 2025 classes. Now it’s the spring 2026 group’s turn. I hope you find these resources helpful: JournalistsToolbox.ai is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

For anyone who has spent an afternoon or night covering a school board or city council meeting, you know how mundane it can be picking through all of the discussion and grandstanding to find some actual news. Fear not. AI can help with some of the heavy lifting. The website Summarize.tech lets you to drop a YouTube link of a meeting and it breaks it down into 5-minute summaries that can guide you to a newsworthy topic.

Note: If you are attending the Online News Association conference in Chicago today, I’ll be presenting on AI tools from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Stop by Salon A1 and lets break the internet! April Fool’s Day is tomorrow, so why not have a newsletter on fact-checking tools, right? In all honesty, with AI tools generating deepfakes, pretty much every day is April Fool’s Day. JournalistsToolbox.ai is a reader-supported publication.

I spoke about basic AI tools for journalists at NICAR 26 in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of my favorite conferences as I get to nerd out on cool tools and resources with other journalists. Here is the link to my presentation and handouts for those who couldn’t make it to Indy. And here are some useful resources I learned from my colleagues in several other sessions, with a focus on ICE data resources: JournalistsToolbox.ai is a reader-supported publication.