The Maharashtra Government launched an innovative initiative to train journalists in artificial intelligence (AI), Skill, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha said on Wednesday.
The training workshop on AI was jointly organised by the Ratan Tata Maharashtra State Skills University and the Mantralaya and Legislature Reporters’ Association at the Mantralaya press room. Lodha attended the third-day session of the four-day programme and interacted with journalists participating in the training.
The other dignitaries present at the event were Ratan Tata Maharashtra State Skills University Vice-Chancellor Dr Apurva Palkar, AI expert Kishore Jasnani, Deputy Secretary Rajendra Talware, and association office-bearers Dilip Sapate and Deepak Bhattose. A large number of journalists from print, electronic, and digital media attended the session.
Expressing satisfaction over the enthusiastic response from journalists, Minister Lodha said, “It is heartening to see such participation. Every new technology leads to discussions about manpower, but AI will actually create more employment opportunities.”
He added that the workshop would help journalists make their daily work more efficient and technology-friendly.
Bhattose said the AI training initiative was highly beneficial and would prove useful for journalists in enhancing their reporting and writing skills.
AI tools useful for effective news writing, says expert
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can significantly improve the quality and speed of news writing when used effectively, said expert Kishore Jasnani during the training session.
He emphasised that proper prompting is key to getting the best results from AI tools and that these technologies are meant to enhance productivity rather than replace human input.
Demonstrating the use of various tools, Jasnani explained that ‘Gemini’ is highly effective for English-to-Marathi translation, while ‘DeepSeek’ works well for generating headlines suited for print, digital and search engine optimisation (SEO)-friendly formats.
He added that creating a prompt based on the ‘5Ws and 1H (who, what, when, where, why and how)’ remains essential for accurate news generation.
Jasnani also showcased tools such as Ideogram, Leonardo, and Gemini for generating visuals, and Otter AI for transcribing recorded conversations into text. He demonstrated how to clean up noisy recordings and accurately transcribe them using the right prompts.
