Microsoft will work with several news organizations to explore and implement new applications of generative artificial intelligence in newsrooms and business operations. (GeekWire File Photo)Microsoft announced five projects to help news organizations incorporate generative artificial intelligence into their operations, building on its existing efforts to use technology to support the role of journalism in democracy. The company will collaborate on different initiatives with Semafor, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, the Online News Association, the GroundTruth Project, and Nota. The move highlights the complex relationship between tech giants and a broader news industry that has seen its traditions and business models repeatedly disrupted by digital innovations over three decades — from the dawn of the web, to the advent of Craigslist and Facebook, and now the rapid rise of AI.Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI were sued late last year by the New York Times for copyright violations over the alleged use of the newspaper’s stories to train large language models including GPT-4.The new initiatives announced Monday aim to establish procedures and practices for responsible AI use in newsgathering and business operations; provide AI training for reporters; and help to build sustainable journalistic business operations and viable newsrooms for the long run.“This work is challenging – and our goal is to find ways to support journalists in this mission, not replace them,” said Noreen Gillespie, journalism director for Microsoft’s Democracy Forward initiative and a former Associated Press journalist, in a Microsoft post. “By working with these organizations, we hope to shed light on the promise that the newsroom of the future can hold.”Project details: Semafor, the news site launched in 2022 by former BuzzFeed News editor Ben Smith and former Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin Smith, said it will launch “a new, global multi-source breaking news feed called Signals” under the collaboration. The approach will use tools from Microsoft and OpenAI to help journalists “offer readers diverse, sophisticated perspectives and insights on the biggest stories in the world as they develop.”The Financial Times reported that the funding for Signals is “substantial” for Semafor’s business, citing a person familiar with the matter