The JournalismAI Innovation Challenge, which is supported by the Google News Initiative, recently hosted a project showcase where newsrooms from around the world shared how they are developing AI prototypes to better meet the needs of their readers and editorial teams.

This blog post was adapted from the October 2025 edition of our monthly newsletter. Subscribe to the Checklist today.

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Several friends of Meedan delivered updates on dynamic new projects, including the Philippines-based fact-checking outlet VERA Files. After giving a quick demo of SEEK — a generative search engine that makes the group’s database of 4,000 fact-checks easier to explore — VERA Files’ Celine Samson reminded the online audience, “Your archive is your superpower.”

Our colleagues at Nawaat are also reaping the benefits of their archive with an AI tool that helps readers scan more than 20 years’ worth of stories from the Tunisian news site. A leading voice for independent journalism in Tunisia since 2004, Nawaat highlighted how AI could be used to spin up issue summaries and timelines from the organization’s vast archive. This new tool is open to the public in Arabic and English on the Nawaat Chronicles platform.

Some outlets are also deploying AI tools to strengthen practice within the newsroom. Mongolia’s Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development discussed how AI-assisted fact-checking and streamlined sentiment analysis could be used by independent media organizations to help prioritize content for additional scrutiny by editors, reporters, and readers. Catch these tools in action right now at Pluma Media, and see the whole roster of new projects from newsrooms in more than 20 countries on the JournalismAI website.

Microsoft is still under fire from digital rights groups

As we consider how to employ new technologies to benefit the public, we are also keeping our eyes on an ongoing story about what it takes to hold some of the world’s largest tech companies to account. Last month, Microsoft disabled a handful of services, including cloud storage and AI-powered analysis tools, for a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defense. This decision came after The Guardian and regional media outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call published a joint investigation revealing that the unit had used Microsoft’s services to carry out mass surveillance of Palestinians’ phone conversations. After Microsoft announced its decision to suspend the services, The Guardian reported that this was the “first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza.”

Our allies at AccessNow have issued an open letter commending this move — and pointing out that Microsoft’s presence in Israel goes much deeper than this particular contract. Microsoft needs to go further, they write, and should “suspend all of its business activities and terminate relationships with the Israeli military and other government bodies where there is evidence that such business activities are contributing to grave human rights abuses and international crimes.” 

Read the letter

Meedan’s Scott Hale takes the helm at Oxford Internet Institute

Lastly, we’re delighted to share that Director of Research Dr. Scott A. Hale has been named the next director of the Oxford Internet Institute. Scott is already an associate professor and senior research fellow at the institute, where he leads the Equitable Access to Quality Information Lab. He will take up the director role in January 2026 while also continuing his work here at Meedan.