Rappler among 12 global publishers awarded AI innovation grant

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler has been selected as one of only 12 publishers worldwide to take part in the JournalismAI Innovation Challenge, a global initiative supporting newsrooms in “developing AI-based products that boost audience intelligence and revenue growth.”

The challenge is led by JournalismAI, a project of journalism think tank Polis based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), supported by Google News Initiative. Rappler was selected from 373 applications received through an open call. 

Through this nine-month-long program, Rappler aims to build an AI-powered product that will deepen its understanding of the needs of its readers, facilitate a better understanding of complex stories, and strengthen its subscription model, Rappler+.

Building sustainable relationships with readers

Rappler’s proposed project is an Intelligent Reader Assistant that will use AI-driven recirculation to serve readers at every stage of engagement, without compromising editorial integrity. 

The AI-powered Intelligent Reader Assistant will provide tailored support for Rappler readers across the user journey: additional backgrounders and context on stories, personalized “what you missed” digests, AI-generated recaps for coverage, and personalized recommendations for content and topics to follow.

“Our goal is to move away from these brief, platform-dependent engagements and move toward direct, sustainable relationships,” says Kaye Cabal, Rappler’s Head of Community Growth and Development.

“We want to strengthen our sustainability by building trust that eventually leads to readers helping fund our journalism through our membership program,” she added.

Alongside Rappler, the following organizations were also selected to take part in the second cohort of the innovation challenge: 

• Amazônia Real (Brazil)
• Ambiental Media (Brazil)
• Denník N (Slovakia)
• Fundación Ciudadana Civio (Spain)
• Malaysiakini (Malaysia)
• Medical Dialogues (India)
• Observador (Portugal)
• Public Policy, Agenzia di Stampa Politica e Parlamentare (Italy)
• Religion News Service (United States)
• Tempo (Indonesia)
• The Reporter (Taiwan) 

According to JournalismAI, winning project ideas range from building an accessible climate journalism tool to improving impact communications.

A leader in responsible AI experimentation

Rappler is a pioneer in the Philippines in the responsible AI use. In 2023, it became the first organization in the country to publish its own AI usage guidelines that embedded oversight and accountability in its systems.

That same year, Rappler launched Rai, a GraphRAG-powered chatbot grounded in an ontology and knowledge graph curated by Rappler journalists, ensuring responses are grounded in verified facts rather than hallucinated outputs.

Rai was initially deployed as an FGD moderator, gathering user input, synthesizing conversations, and generating policy suggestions on issues ranging from AI governance to car-free cities. This work was supported by OpenAI’s democratic inputs to AI Grant Program.

Ahead of the 2022 elections, this project created the first Philippine Politics Knowledge Graph which enabled Rappler to generate profiles of almost 50,000 local and national candidates as well as communities holding electoral exercises. 

In November 2023, Rappler won the 2023 AI in Journalism Challenge, beating 113 organizations worldwide with TLDR — an AI tool designed to provide clear, straightforward, and visual content for young media consumers. 

More recently, Rappler developed NewsPulse, an AI tool that delivers “smart data for smart news.” It features trend forecasting, improved content pipeline management, and prioritization to cultivate a reader-centric newsroom. 

Participation in the JournalismAI Innovation Challenge allows Rappler to build on this foundation, continuing to experiment with AI in ways that strengthen journalism, empower audiences, and uphold democratic values. – Rappler.com