San Francisco, May 7 (IANS): Google has launched a free training course in 17 languages to teach journalists around the world what impact can Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have on their profession.

In a global survey conducted by Google last year about the use of AI by news organizations, most respondents highlighted the urgent need to educate and train their newsroom on the potential offered by machine learning and other AI-powered technologies.

"Improving AI literacy was seen as vital to change culture and improve understanding of new tools and systems," said Mattia Peretti, who manages the programme called JournalismAI.

The new training course is produced by JournalismAI in collaboration with VRT News and the Google News Initiative (GNI).

They realized that more the newsroom at large embraces the technology and generates the ideas and expertise for AI projects, the better the outcome.

"This Introduction to Machine Learning is built by journalists, for journalists, and it will help answer questions such as: What is machine learning? How do you train a machine learning model? What can journalists and news organizations do with it and why is it important to use it responsibly?" said Google.

The course is available in 17 different languages on the Google News Initiative Training Centre.

By logging in, you can track your progress and get a certificate when you complete the course.

The training centre also has a variety of other courses to help journalists find, verify and tell news stories online.

It's a tough time for journalists and news organisations worldwide, as they try to assess the impact that COVID-19 will have on the business and editorial side of the industry.

"With JournalismAI, we want to play our role in helping to minimize costs and enhance opportunities for the industry through these new technologies," said Google.

At the end of the course, the users will find a list of recommended resources, produced by journalism and technology experts across the world, that have been instrumental in designing Introduction to Machine Learning.

"After this course, and the previous training module with strategic suggestions on AI adoption, we are planning to design more training resources on AI and machine learning for journalists later this year," said Peretti.