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Unique media initiative within AI innovation

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Medier & demokrati and AI Innovation of Sweden are starting a national pilot initiative with a focus on media-specific AI innovation. Three media companies are on board from day one: Hall Media, Stampen Media and Sveriges Television. - We're very happy about the initiative, says Martin Holmberg, Programme Manager at Medier & demokrati.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that is gaining increasing importance for innovation and development. The media industry is no exception and the initiative promotes collaboration between media companies and AI Innovation of Sweden with Medier & demokrati as a platform. The goal is to establish and accelerate media-specific, competition-neutral technological development with a focus on AI and data-driven journalism, and business, product and production development.

- However we look at it, AI is probably the development that will affect us the most in the coming years. Maybe not until next year or the year after, but it's essential to keep in step with development in order to learn more and share experiences with others, says Adde Granberg, CTO at Sveriges Television.

The ambition is long-sighted, but the initiative is initially planned to extend until June 2021. The media companies will lead preliminary studies and projects together and will also have the opportunity to participate in other cross-sector initiatives. The initiative is financed by Vinnova and the participating media companies.

- I think that AI will become an integral part of the media industry. We need to use technology to be able to foresee how readers receive our content so that we can utilise resources in the right way. And as we're focusing so much on our continued digital development, it seems like a natural step to participate in an environment which offers so much expertise within AI. We still have a lot to learn, says George Grönwald, Head of Data and Analysis at Hall Media.

Christofer Ahlqvist, Editor-in-Chief at Göteborgs-Posten, the largest newspaper within Stampen Media, thinks along the same lines.

- This is exciting – and an area in which we need to gain knowledge and that should be treated with respect. For those of us who work with news media, it's a matter of combining new technology like this with the craftsmanship that good journalism and editorship entail. If done in the right way, AI could be a way of ensuring that readers don't risk missing out on the journalism that interests them.

Thanks to this initiative, the participating media companies also gain access to the rest of AI Innovation of Sweden, which is now establishing development environments in several other locations in Sweden following its successful start in Gothenburg almost a year ago.

- Our assessment is that this initiative will, in time, have great importance for the media industry's innovation capacity. Our goal is to get more companies involved by the end of the test period, says Holmberg.

AI pilot project at a glance

  • Initiative for media-specific, competition-neutral AI innovation.
  • Period: December 2019 - June 2021.
  • Three media companies are participating from the start: Hall Media, Stampen Media and Sveriges Television.The initiative is financed by Vinnova and the participating companies. In conjunction with the initiative, a Flexit research position has been established between Medier & demokrati and AI Innovation of Sweden starting 1 March 2020.  
  • AI Innovation of Sweden is the country's leading organisation for applied research and development within AI. The centre is headed by Lindholmen Science Park.