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.

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.