Who we are and why we use AI

Sahan Journal provides communities of color with free, fair, and responsive journalism that shows everyone the way to a more equitable Minnesota. 

Historically, American newsrooms have often perpetuated inequality, both in the stories they tell about people of color and the way they operate as workplaces. 

Over the past six years, Sahan has grown into a 24-person nonprofit organization, with a newsroom that includes reporters, editors, producers, data journalists, visual journalists, community engagement managers, and interns/fellows. AI technology can support our staff not just to perform their usual work, but to expand our organization’s service, scope, and ambition. 

At the same time, we recognize that AI presents the field of journalism with many potential problems. A partial list includes plagiarism, racial bias, data privacy, job displacement, corporate control, environmental impact, publishing model disruption, and audience trust. These are not minor concerns. 

In exploring and using AI technology, Sahan Journal is committed to following its organizational goals and ethics guidelines. 

Sahan’s values

Some of these ethical principles can be found in Sahan’s strategic vision (published 2024). Here are a few that apply: 

  • We perform our work ethically and are accountable for our actions.
  • We foster a workplace culture that is open, respectful, collaborative, transparent, and receptive to new ideas.

What’s in this document

We’ve created the AI guidelines to help everyone in the organization think about the right ways to use AI technology in our work and workplace. It may be tempting to focus just on our reporting and publishing. But many questions and quandaries about AI technology arise in other areas of our organization. That includes Sahan’s advertising department; its development and membership programs; and its operations, finance, and human resources work.

Building and maintaining trust with our readers lies at the core of everything we do. 

What our stakeholders and our staff need to know about Sahan’s AI policies

Transparency

Many newsrooms are exploring how AI technology can assist with a variety of editorial newsroom tasks, from scraping data to transcribing interviews to improving headlines for SEO and readability. 

That said, Sahan Journal values, above all, the importance of original news gathered and reported by human journalists. We will not use AI to replace our staff/journalists. 

It’s imperative that Sahan staff, editors, and leadership communicate frequently and transparently about where and when we use AI.  To that end,  we will disclose to our readers when AI plays a key role in producing reader-facing content. 

  • For example, readers should know when Sahan’s newsroom has used AI to play a central role in its data journalism: for semantic search, say, or sentiment analysis. Here, AI tools are performing an editorial function.
  • Likewise, Sahan should inform readers about AI technology used to create a public-facing chatbot or assistant. 

Increasingly, Sahan’s editorial workflows deploy AI tools to assist with preparatory and background-level tasks. These include tasks like,

  • Developing transcripts from audio interviews
  • Producing draft versions of subtitles or text overlays for social video stories
  • Suggesting heds and deks for web stories or subject lines for newsletters
  • Using AI tools to locate numbers or words from a PDF. 

Here’s what Sahan newsroom staff need to know: In weighing when to disclose the use of AI tools, err on the side of caution. Please consult your editors (or, where appropriate, Sahan’s AI team leads) whenever you have a question about whether a public-facing story calls for a disclosure statement.

The takeaway for Sahan’s readers: When you read or watch Sahan’s coverage, the work comes from human reporters, editors, and newsroom staff who adhere to the organization’s journalistic mission and values.

Data privacy

Data privacy is a paramount concern for Sahan Journal. This value extends from our reporting processes to our human resources systems. AI companies have widely created models by scraping and using data without permission from creators. These practices do not meet Sahan’s standards, and have raised broad concern for journalists and many other professional fields. 

Some AI products have created secure methods to protect and isolate data from their training models. Practically, this means the data remains visible to Sahan staff but separate from the public. Other AI technologies do not follow this practice: These materials do not remain secure or private. 

Sahan Journal’s AI team will create and disseminate clear guidelines and offer training to help staff protect data of all sorts — especially sensitive, confidential, and private information about sources and documents. 

We urge staff not to put confidential or sensitive information into AI tools without consulting Sahan’s news technology specialist and/or our organization’s specific guidelines. 

Accountability

AI systems learn from vast troves of data that are collected from various sources. These data sources often contain implicit or explicit biases, which can result in AI systems reflecting and sometimes amplifying those biases. 

Sahan Journal takes pride in accurately reflecting the communities we cover. We will routinely assess AI tools for potential biases, especially those that may misrepresent or harm marginalized communities.

Sahan Journal will facilitate staff training on AI to increase AI literacy in the organization. Sahan may empanel an ad hoc committee to handle questions that arise about AI ethics and practical usage. 

Sahan Journal collaborates with American Journalism Project’s Product & AI Studio, which receives funding from OpenAI. OpenAI, a leading AI company, continues to provide funding and AI-model access to the American Journalism Project. While Sahan Journal staff may experiment with OpenAI products, our news and organizational judgments are made independently and are not based on donor support.

Sahan Journal will create opportunities for feedback from readers regarding the use of AI. Have questions or feedback regarding Sahan Journal’s use of AI? Please email contact@sahanjournal.com.

AI keeps evolving; Sahan will, too

As AI technology evolves, so will this guide. Any major changes to our AI usage or policies will be communicated clearly to our readers. Sahan Journal’s leadership team and news technology specialist will review and update this guide when the organization deploys new AI tools in our work. 

This guideline doc was last updated on May 12, 2026.