News Desk
Lahore :Google celebrated two years of its Digital Sahafat program at an event at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore on November 12. The program, launched in September 2024, trains journalists and journalism students to use Google AI tools to verify information, work more efficiently and build sustainable newsroom practices. It is now expanding into Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Attendees included Ali Dar, Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister on AI, Hum Network chairperson Sultana Siddiqui, and Kate Beddoe, Google’s Managing Director for News Partnerships, APAC. Dar said no government can do this alone and that collaboration among Google, Tech Valley, universities and media houses is what a “future-forward Pakistan” means.
Delivered through Tech Valley, an ed-tech social enterprise, using a cascade model of Master Trainers, the program has trained over 4,000 journalists, students and media practitioners, plus more than 60 Master Trainers, across all four provinces. Partners include provincial government departments and universities such as Beaconhouse National University and the University of Karachi.
According to Google’s 2025 participant surveys, 85 percent of participants use Google AI tools daily, nearly 68 percent saved over a quarter of their time on daily tasks, and confidence in using AI rose 260 percent.
