Dataharvest 2025 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing investigative journalism. Whether you're identifying perpetrators, verifying sources or fact-checking, AI-powered OSINT opens up new possibilities for journalism. Examples such as precise ChatGPT prompts for Overpass Turbo or AI-driven automated satellite image analysis demonstrate the immense potential of these technologies. We will look into techniques and tools AI can help us with, from leveraging the AI to analyse geographic data, reconstruct movement patterns and pinpoint locations, to using AI tools to create perpetrators' profiles, verify sources and analyse digital traces. This hands-on presentation will showcase how AI can be integrated into journalistic workflows to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Join us to explore the latest methods in data-driven investigations.

Large language models and other AI systems sometimes only work because there are thousands of people labeling and classifying information that is then used in training the models. Journalistic investigations are discovering rights violations and misdemeanors by large outsourcing companies, who offer jobs below the minimum wage. In some cases, workers are forced to go through datasets of disturbing data that can affect their mental health. However, tracing this labour chain is not easy. Big Tech companies often turn to underdeveloped countries where they can take advantage of economic conditions and labour needs to employ this activity; scammers take advantage of this under-supervised process. How can you track this outsourcing chain when you are sitting at your desk somewhere in Europe? Journalists who attend this session will learn how to investigate large tech companies and follow the traces of their activities, as well as uncovering labour and human rights violations along the AI supply chain. They will also learn how to contact the right sources and approach workers who are in sensitive situations.

With the EU’s new AI Act introducing a historic regulatory framework, there are high hopes for greater oversight of artificial intelligence. But significant loopholes remain — especially when it comes to surveillance, policing, and the algorithmic control of workers.

In this session, journalists will share how they’re reporting on AI systems hidden in plain sight — from biometric surveillance to algorithmic monitoring in the workplace. Through these cases, they’ll show how the AI Act opens doors for investigation, while also leaving dangerous blind spots.

Participants will leave the session with practical strategies for reporting on AI and power: how to trace lobbying and regulation, use FOI requests, and uncover the real-world impact of automated systems — even when those in charge prefer to keep them invisible.

AI has moved from niche tech coverage to leading headlines worldwide. Opaque algorithms make life-changing decisions about millions across the continent in health, banking and social security systems. Meanwhile, Big Tech increasingly uses Europe as a base for the resource-guzzling data centres that power modern generative AI development. So where do you start? This hands-on session will walk through a framework for different story archetypes and an understanding of how to generate and pursue story leads. Then, we'll home in on a specific story and how to build an AI accountability investigation from scratch — including following the money behind digital infrastructure, using freedom-of-information laws and collaborating with data scientists to uncover algorithmic bias. Participants will leave the session with an understanding of how to investigate automated systems even when access to code is difficult. Participants who want to go deeper can attend the Level 2 session.

Investigating algorithms is not just about obtaining code. On the contrary, there's so much we can learn from an automated system – whether Al-driven or rule-based – by looking the impact it has on individuals, minorities and marginalized communities. We can examine the people involved in its development and deployment; the companies who profit; the data it generates; and the weight given to the parameters it relies on to make decisions. How do we find this data and approach the investigation? This session is aimed at journalists with previous experience in reporting about automation and AI and those who attended our beginner level session (Saturday, 0930). In this practical workshop we will explore two real, successful cases of investigative algorithmic accountability reporting. These investigations uncovered how automated systems are used for welfare allocation in different European countries. This will be a hands-on session – don't expect ready-made answers. Instead, all participants will start with the same, limited information about the case. Together, we will explore the different methodologies and approaches we can use to uncover how an algorithm works, even when we have little data to start with. During the workshop, we will aim to obtain as many techniques and methods as possible and inspire new investigations.

The EU is increasingly dedicating resources and funding to developing technologies aimed at tracking migration flows. They use biometric and other sensitive data, and monitor borders with dystopian automated systems. These systems often target vulnerable groups, such as migrants, who are surveilled and exploited as data subjects without their consent.

While desk research provides a broad overview of funding flows, it has taken firsthand investigations along the EU's Mediterranean and Atlantic borders to enable us to fully grasp how migration control is being transformed by surveillance and automation. On-the-ground journalistic investigations in Greece, Spain and Italy have revealed that such investments are frequently squandered on automated systems that either fail to function properly or are poorly implemented, resulting in millions of euros wasted. Instead of safeguarding migrants' lives, these technologies often put them at greater risk.

Join this session to learn how to conduct fieldwork research and gather primary-source information on the intersection of migration and technology. Little technical background is required to report on this issue. We will share our findings and demonstrate how to assess this critical topic avoiding EU hype reflected in money flows, public tenders, press notes, etc. while contrasting it with on the ground information.