Adopt / 📍Lede

14:30–15:45 / Thursday May 14

Building an AI Tool That Finds News Amid the Noise

News Detector by The Baltimore Banner monitors more than 100 Maryland news and information sources, checking them several times a day. It evaluates each story for journalistic signals such as impact, novelty, timeliness, and local relevance, then uses editor-labeled data to assign a newsworthiness score. Editors get a prioritized list of leads to review, staying fully in control while AI handles the grunt work.

// speakers

Peter Rasmussen

Peter Rasmussen

Principal AI Engineer

The Baltimore Banner

LinkedIn

I’m a multidisciplinary AI engineer and data scientist with more than a decade of experience building end-to-end machine learning systems that solve complex, real-world problems. My work spans computer vision, NLP, anomaly detection, time series, optimization, and data engineering, and I’ve applied these tools across government, consulting, media, and commercial environments. At The Baltimore Banner, I build AI-enabled systems for journalists and business teams, translating editorial and organizational needs into practical tools, workflows, and decision support. Earlier in my career, I developed machine learning, analytics, and optimization solutions at Accenture Federal, Gallup, and MITRE. I hold degrees in artificial intelligence, industrial engineering, and chemical engineering, and I’m motivated by using advanced methods to build useful systems that create clear human value at scale.

Biswajit Ganguly

Biswajit Ganguly

CTO

The Baltimore Banner

LinkedIn

As Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategist for Artificial Intelligence, Biswajit heads engineering and IT infrastructure at The Banner. He is responsible for AI and technology strategy and engineering implementation that supports product, editorial, marketing and analytics functions across the organization. Biswajit led the development of The Banner’s award-winning website and highly rated mobile app, and built the cloud and data platform that has supported the organization’s growth over the past four years.