{"id":378029,"date":"2026-04-13T22:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378029\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T22:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:50:11","slug":"cnn-hires-ny-times-chief-data-scientist-chris-wiggins-to-head-ai-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378029\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN Hires NY Times Chief Data Scientist Chris Wiggins to Head AI Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCNN<\/a> has tapped Chris Wiggins<\/a>, who has served as chief data scientist at the New York Times for more than a decade, for a newly created role as head of machine learning and AI science.<\/p>\n

\n\tWiggins\u2019 hiring was announced in an internal memo to CNN staff Monday. At the news outlet, he will lead a team that \u201coptimizes the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve outcomes company-wide, from maximizing advertising and subscriber revenue, to creating unique and personalized experiences for users, to helping editorial teams utilize data tooling in coverage and programming decisions,\u201d per the announcement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe AI team led by Wiggins will comprise engineers and data scientists \u201cwho are already doing this work at CNN, bringing existing teams together under a new leader,\u201d according to CNN. Wiggins and his new team will be part of CNN\u2019s Digital Products and Services organization, and he will be based out of the New York bureau.<\/p>\n

\n\tWiggins will report to Kendell Timmers, senior VP of data analytics, science and insights at CNN \u2014 who also previously worked at the New York Times, where she was SVP and head of data and insights.\u00a0Timmers joined CNN in September 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince 2013, Wiggins had served as the Times\u2019 chief data scientist. At the paper, he led initiatives including a project designed to improve the effectiveness of the digital paywall through machine learning; developing AI-powered content recommendation systems that combine editorial judgment and optimization; and creating AI-powered ad products such as BrandMatch.<\/p>\n

\n\tWiggins also is an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University. He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics with minors in mathematics and religion from Columbia College and a PhD in theoretical physics from Princeton University.<\/p>\n

\n\tCNN said Wiggins was joining the company as part of its \u201ctransformation\u00a0into a best-in-class digital organization,\u201d focused on streaming, mobile and lifestyle products. Other recent hires on this front include Ashley Nutter, senior VP of product management and design (formerly senior director of Twitch ads and sponsorship products at Amazon), and Sam Felix, senior VP of strategic partnerships and business development (previously VP of platform strategy and partnerships at the New York Times).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN has tapped Chris Wiggins, who has served as chief data scientist at the New York Times for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,196931,59304,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-378029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-chris-wiggins","12":"tag-cnn","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}