https://easonzhong99.github.io/tags/industry/IndustryHugo Blox Builder (https://hugoblox.com)en-usMon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://easonzhong99.github.io/media/icon_hu68170e94a17a2a43d6dcb45cf0e8e589_3079_512x512_fill_lanczos_center_3.pnghttps://easonzhong99.github.io/tags/industry/https://easonzhong99.github.io/post/washington-post-internship-2026/Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://easonzhong99.github.io/post/washington-post-internship-2026/<p>This summer I joined <strong>The Washington Post</strong> in Washington, D.C. as an <strong>Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning intern</strong>, as part of the <em>2026 Engineering &amp; Business Operations Internship Program</em>.</p> <p> <figure id="figure-day-one-of-the-washington-post-2026-engineering--business-operations-internship-program"> <div class="flex justify-center "> <div class="w-100" ><img alt="My desk on day one of the internship program" srcset=" /post/washington-post-internship-2026/welcome-desk_hud51eff7d3c64eea9b4166d840cedcbab_295909_965be3d0364e1b9e83cf2b5b19a5ea52.webp 400w, /post/washington-post-internship-2026/welcome-desk_hud51eff7d3c64eea9b4166d840cedcbab_295909_7dd86032f12d37a7af48cedcc5a8950e.webp 760w, /post/washington-post-internship-2026/welcome-desk_hud51eff7d3c64eea9b4166d840cedcbab_295909_1200x1200_fit_q80_h2_lanczos.webp 1200w" src="https://easonzhong99.github.io/post/washington-post-internship-2026/welcome-desk_hud51eff7d3c64eea9b4166d840cedcbab_295909_965be3d0364e1b9e83cf2b5b19a5ea52.webp" width="570" height="760" loading="lazy" data-zoomable /></div> </div><figcaption> Day one of The Washington Post 2026 Engineering &amp; Business Operations Internship Program </figcaption></figure> </p> <p>Working inside a newsroom gave me a very different view of the problems I study. In research I get to choose the benchmark; here the constraints came from real editorial workflows, real latency budgets, and a real bar for accuracy — where a plausible-but-wrong model output is not a metric regression but a credibility cost.</p> <p> <figure id="figure-inside-the-newsroom"> <div class="flex justify-center "> <div class="w-100" ><img alt="The Washington Post newsroom" srcset=" /post/washington-post-internship-2026/newsroom_hucc44807a82bc04a333733a241d626068_284723_a908ffff0e0701ab7a95cfba43a8f8b4.webp 400w, /post/washington-post-internship-2026/newsroom_hucc44807a82bc04a333733a241d626068_284723_e87414373d718e3483e289f1ce762cab.webp 760w, /post/washington-post-internship-2026/newsroom_hucc44807a82bc04a333733a241d626068_284723_1200x1200_fit_q80_h2_lanczos.webp 1200w" src="https://easonzhong99.github.io/post/washington-post-internship-2026/newsroom_hucc44807a82bc04a333733a241d626068_284723_a908ffff0e0701ab7a95cfba43a8f8b4.webp" width="760" height="570" loading="lazy" data-zoomable /></div> </div><figcaption> Inside the newsroom </figcaption></figure> </p> <p>I&rsquo;m grateful to my team and mentors for their guidance, and to the other interns for making the summer as much fun as it was instructive. It was a good reminder of why the trustworthiness questions in my research — what a model remembers, what it should be able to forget, and how confidently it should speak — matter well beyond the paper.</p>