New Training for Reporters on How to Use AI to Boost Congressional Coverage
POPVOX Foundation just released a new training video that brings Congressional reporters up to speed on how Capitol Hill uses AI and how journalists can leverage these same tools to enhance their reporting.
The training video, "How Congress Uses AI (And You Can Too!)," offers journalists practical insights on both AI adoption in Congress and actionable techniques for using AI on the Capitol Hill beat. Just as AI can help Congressional staffers better navigate their workload, it can also help reporters who cover Congress.
Presented by POPVOX Foundation's Senior Communications Advisor Gabriela Schneider and Director of Government Innovation Aubrey Wilson, this accessible tutorial demonstrates how reporters can use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to:
Summarize hearings and analyze legislation quickly
Compare competing bills and track legislative changes
Extract provisions relevant to specific beats or constituencies
Identify expert sources for balanced coverage
Analyze Congressional spending patterns to uncover stories
Clean interview transcripts and organize research
Create targeted social media content for news promotion
The training also covers prompt guidance techniques that increase efficiency when working with large language models and highlights the differences between House and Senate approaches to AI adoption.
POPVOX Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit staffed by former Congressional aides from both sides of the aisle, focuses on helping democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world without taking political positions on partisan issues. Access the free training video here.