Translating a journalist's gut instinct into code—is it possible? In Norway, iTromsø—a long-standing regional newspaper known for its investigative journalism and deep local coverage—has found a way.

Their AI system, DJINN (Data Journalism Interface for News Gathering and Notification), acts like an experienced beat reporter, scanning hundreds of municipal documents and surfacing the most newsworthy leads. The impact? In their first week using DJINN, summer interns fresh out of journalism school produced five front-page stories—on a beat that usually takes years to master.

In this episode of Newsroom Robots, I spoke to Rune Ytreberg and Lars Adrian Giske about iTromsø’s structured approach to AI-driven reporting and how they built tools that strengthen their local journalism.

Rune leads iTromsø’s data journalism lab, where he has been developing AI-driven editorial solutions for 70 local newspapers within the Polaris Media Group since 2020. And Lars is the Head of AI at iTromsø and led the development of DJINN. Since its launch in 2023, 36 newspapers across Norway have adopted DJINN, sourcing documents from nearly half of all Norwegian municipalities.

Key topics include:

•How a small newsroom built AI tools to strengthen investigative journalism

•Why their AI systems are designed for specific beats like urban planning and fisheries, reducing hallucinations and increasing precision.

•Embedding editorial expertise in AI development

•How their fisheries database flagged irregularities and how their urban planning system transformed local accountability coverage.

This is just Part 1 of our deep dive into how iTromsø is using AI to power investigative reporting. In Part 2, Rune and Lars will discuss their latest project: AI-powered research assistants that will proactively surface investigative leads for their journalists.

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