Latest / The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast / Navigating the AI Slop: How Editorial Judgment Is Changing (EP 21)
Transcript
- 0:14Hello, this is Eva and you're listening to the In Between Tech
- 0:18and Trust podcast. In this week's episode, we dive
- 0:21into one of the most relevant topics that you can look into in
- 0:25the AI era, and that is the intersection of AI media and
- 0:29journalism. And for that topic, I have one
- 0:32of the leading voices with me in conversation, and that is Doctor
- 0:36Paul Elvas. And Paul is head of AI at funk
- 0:39comedian Cropper. He's also leading the AI lab
- 0:42within the company, so he brings his practical view into
- 0:47translating between stakeholders and implementing AI into the
- 0:52journalistic aspects of how to publish content and contain
- 0:56audience trust. So together we dive.
- 0:58Into how AI intersects with trust, transparency, and the
- 1:03journalistic. Practice, Paul also shares.
- 1:06His view on how an AI newsroom of the future should look like.
- 1:10We also look into the impacts of the so-called AI slop of what,
- 1:16for example, deepfakes, audience mistrust, and AI generated
- 1:20content does to the industry. But we also want to look into
- 1:25tangible ways of how to maintain credibility, democratic
- 1:29functions and navigating the rapidly changing technological
- 1:33conditions. Hi, Paul.
- 1:37Good morning. Good morning, Yifa, nice to be
- 1:39here. I'm particularly intrigued to
- 1:41dive into the intersection of tech, trust, and media with you
- 1:45today. But before we start into the
- 1:47topic particularly, I would love to hear your thought on the
- 1:51intersection of tech and trust. What is the first thing that
- 1:54comes to your mind when you hear that?
- 1:58So I think like trust and tech isn't really about blind faith.
- 2:02I think it's has a lot to do about understanding how the
- 2:06systems work and and who's accountable basically.
- 2:09So I think initially when especially tech is
- 2:12transformative, people tend to mistrust the technology and a
- 2:17lot of trust can be gained when you start working with it or
- 2:21just do like, yeah, do something with it and then you build up
- 2:25trust. You understand how the system
- 2:27works and then you also find out or figure out which components
- 2:32of the system you can trust and like which other parts of the
- 2:36system maybe are a little bit more ambiguous and you have to
- 2:40double check things in this domain.
- 2:43So I think it has a lot to do with understanding the
- 2:46technology to basically build up trust for things that are new.
- 2:50And the things that I knew, something that is like on your
- 2:53daily program, so to say, because as head of AI at one of
- 2:57the largest like media houses in Germany, you're basically at the
- 3:01linchpin of like newness and media and also the technology in
- 3:05itself of what shapes the industry.
- 3:07And you also sit at the core of digital transformation.
- 3:11So what is, according to your opinion and expertise of what
- 3:15you saw over the past couple of weeks and months, really the
- 3:18biggest misconception when we talk about AI and journalism
- 3:22today? I think we have to kind of
- 3:25differentiate between those within the field of media and
- 3:30and those who are basically more or less consumers of media.
- 3:35I would say that as people who are reading the news or
- 3:40consuming media primarily, there is this belief that that the
- 3:44media is like not putting a lot of thought into how they use AI.
- 3:49So I think some of them might have like the the conception at
- 3:54least that that media companies start using AI just to create
- 3:59content with it in a very naive manner.
- 4:03And I think part of this is also true for those who are in the
- 4:07field or working as, as journalists or in, in media
- 4:11companies that they initially think now the shift towards AI
- 4:17means that we have to naively adopt the technology and create
- 4:21just more content without supervision, without shaping
- 4:26this how the system work. And I would say the reality is
- 4:30more like that that now is a, is a time where you basically can
- 4:36reshape the whole process of creating media, creating
- 4:41content. And those who basically put a
- 4:44lot of effort into it and, and know how to integrate the
- 4:48technology well, they will succeed in a way that they will
- 4:52not just create a lot of AI slop, let's put it like that,
- 4:56but actually use AI to amplify also the quality of the media.
- 5:00I think you can like if you do it right, you can, you can
- 5:03integrate AI at the right steps in the process of creating
- 5:07various kinds of content that actually do amplify by the final
- 5:11results instead of like lowering or damping what comes out.
- 5:15And media companies shouldn't like just naively adopt the
- 5:18technology. They should focus on on this
- 5:20part of figuring out how you can create good content that people
- 5:25are interested in with the technology.
- 5:28And you said like a word that does actually all over the news.
- 5:33It's like the AI slop. Well, does that mean to you
- 5:37particularly? And also, could you explain a
- 5:39little bit more of how it impacts your work or also
- 5:43another work of like the media house that you're part of?
- 5:47Yeah, I mean, AI slob, I kind of dislike the word a little bit,
- 5:50but it it's just around there and people use it to describe, I
- 5:54would say mediocre or bad content that is just created
- 5:59with AI tools. Could be a short video for
- 6:04social platforms could be news articles that are published on
- 6:09pages that are not really trustworthy.
- 6:12So this is typically the kind of content that we refer to with AI
- 6:16slop, but also sometimes you can kind of like put this as a label
- 6:20on a lot of different kinds of content, and sometimes you're
- 6:22also not really appreciating certain kinds of AI content that
- 6:27are actually good. I mean, I just recently talked
- 6:30about the the cat that is playing various instruments on
- 6:34on the front porch. And I actually believe this is
- 6:37this is a unique kind of quality content.
- 6:40Actually, while it is completely created by by AII think it's
- 6:43VO3A video model that created these scenes where where a cat
- 6:48is playing. I don't know, a lot of different
- 6:50kinds of instruments, which obviously you could never film
- 6:53because a cat would never do this.
- 6:54But it's really entertaining to to see this kind of idea and
- 6:58it's funny and, and it has a lot of things that that people would
- 7:02usually put into content when they created.
- 7:05So I think we have to be careful with the AI slot label.
- 7:08But on the other hand, I think it really good, nicely describes
- 7:12how consumers of media are now have a hard time navigating the
- 7:16landscape of media and basically figuring out what is trustworthy
- 7:21and what is not trustworthy. And it surfaces this challenge
- 7:24that AI content gives us to basically also judge what is
- 7:29true, what is not true, what can I believe and what is just like
- 7:32fake news. And I think there are two sides
- 7:35of like the fear that people have.
- 7:37So on the one hand side, it's the fear of trusting the media
- 7:41output and contents in terms of information that you consume.
- 7:45And on the other side, it's also like losing the trust in
- 7:48journalism overall and the craft of journalism and in itself,
- 7:54because also there is a lot of talks that journalists won't
- 7:57have a job. If you just would like put it
- 8:00really like frankly, and that the quality is erode.
- 8:03What do you see AI actually enabling, particularly when you
- 8:06talk about quality or quantity? And where do you see legitimate
- 8:12risks that could impact the way of how we the news that we
- 8:16consume? I think AI, like in The
- 8:19Newsroom, is really good at automating tedious tasks, tasks
- 8:24that nobody really likes but you have to do as a journalist.
- 8:28So transcribing things, summarizing things, doing the
- 8:32research for your papers. AI can assist with a lot of
- 8:35these processes and basically can give you more time to focus
- 8:40on those parts of the process that should always be done by a,
- 8:44by a human, by by somebody who is crafting the content and who
- 8:48is in in the driver's seat for the final result.
- 8:51So this is also something that we at for Comedian Corpora
- 8:55inherently believe in that it is really important to keep the
- 8:59human the center of the process at the beginning and the end.
- 9:03So whenever content is created, a human should be the one who's
- 9:07deciding how to create it. What, what message do you want
- 9:10to convey? And also how should the final
- 9:11piece look? And, but obviously AI can help
- 9:14us to be a lot more efficient. And that's something that we
- 9:17should appreciate and, and integrate.
- 9:20But then I mean, on the other hand, we should always focus
- 9:23that we will keep some things with the human in the loop.
- 9:26And then you also asked about like trust, How can we keep the
- 9:31trust basically with us? And I would say in the situation
- 9:34right now where you have a lot of AI slot and users have
- 9:37trouble like navigating to landscape brands and especially
- 9:40also people become like very important to basically build up
- 9:44trust. Because trust in media also for
- 9:47me means to build up a relationship with either people
- 9:51or it could also be a relationship to to a news brand
- 9:54where you basically know that they work thoroughly.
- 9:57And I think for media companies, this is kind of like something
- 10:00that they should put on their top priority.
- 10:03We have to like make sure that we always keep the trust with
- 10:07our audience, that we keep this relationship to our audience,
- 10:10and be really transparent about how we use AI to basically make
- 10:14sure that we are the ones that people go to if they want to
- 10:19know that they can trust us with how we talk about what's
- 10:24happening in the world. If we talk transparency, it's
- 10:31one of like the most crucial parts of of the whole discussion
- 10:35of how we set up and interact with AI, particularly in the way
- 10:39that content is shaped. Who do you think is responsible,
- 10:42the consumer or the provider or like a third party organization
- 10:48that provides, you know, frameworks for it?
- 10:53I think it should be a shared responsibility that is with
- 10:58everybody who's every party that is part of the process of
- 11:04shaping or creating content. I think the those who trained
- 11:12the big AI models, they, they could obviously do a lot more in
- 11:16terms of transparency. We still don't really know which
- 11:20data went to went into the models, into the big LLMS that
- 11:24were trained. So we need a lot more
- 11:27transparency about the training data.
- 11:31But then also us as intermediaries who are using
- 11:37this technology and either incorporate this into workflows,
- 11:41we need to make sure that we be that we are transparent about
- 11:44how we use it. And for instance, if we like, we
- 11:48have a certain set of rules, for instance, that if something is,
- 11:53is, it's created by AI. And then we, we label this piece
- 11:57of content that is an AI created piece.
- 12:00And we also make transparent about like what, what, what part
- 12:03of this is created by an AI. So to give you an example, we
- 12:08have a daily newsletter where people can now also listen to
- 12:13the newsletter. And the newsletter is written by
- 12:16one of the journalists in our newsroom.
- 12:19And now they can hear the newsletter that is is an audio
- 12:26spoken by the person who wrote the newsletter.
- 12:29But we use AI to basically turn the text into audio.
- 12:35So we use 11 apps here to basically create an audio
- 12:39podcast for the newsletter. And this is really good because
- 12:44we basically reach our readers or listeners in this case in
- 12:49another type of media. And we can like transform the
- 12:54original content piece into something else with very little
- 12:57effort. We can use AI for this, but we
- 13:01make sure that this is transparent and that that the
- 13:05the the user knows like what is happening.
- 13:08What's going on here? I think that is so like tangible
- 13:14of how you incorporated it into your processes or the way that
- 13:20you approach AI. From my experience, it's hard to
- 13:24be that clear as the way that you also just reflected upon of
- 13:28how you as an organization are. How did you get there?
- 13:32Like how did you come up with this clarity of how you use AI
- 13:37and who did you also loop into the preparation to get there?
- 13:44Yeah, I think that's a, that's a, that's a big challenge
- 13:47actually for for media companies, probably also for
- 13:51companies in other domains because you AI is basically
- 13:58everywhere and it it has they're like every part in your company
- 14:02basically is more or less involved into this process of
- 14:07agreeing on let's say a certain consensus how to use AI in the
- 14:15company. And so, so in our case, we
- 14:18basically had to make sure that we getting agreement between the
- 14:23Workers Union, the, the, the high level executive board,
- 14:26those who work in the unused room and, and, and basically
- 14:30make sure that every party is involved in this process and can
- 14:34like incorporate their perspective on this.
- 14:37And then basically, you know, try to, to, to agree on
- 14:43something certain set of rules that we all think are valid.
- 14:46But also to be honest, I think because the technology is just
- 14:50evolving so rapidly, this is not really for a long duration and
- 14:54you basically always have to refine these things.
- 14:57If you just think like how much has happened in this year alone
- 15:03and also how much has the industry moved?
- 15:05How much more are we like moving towards AI content?
- 15:09If you look at video, for instance, like video AI at the
- 15:14beginning of the year wasn't really a thing that you like,
- 15:17think is is around there. But, but now it's like
- 15:21everywhere on social media, you can find video AI.
- 15:24So that just shows us like how fast things are moving and that
- 15:29you constantly need to like re evaluate also the, the, the set
- 15:33of consensus rules or points that you agree on and and make
- 15:40sure that you're always in line with how the technology evolves.
- 15:47But doesn't that make you like not only the head of AI, but
- 15:52more of an in like integrator, orchestrator between the
- 15:55different kinds of, you know, skill sets, stakeholders?
- 15:59I mean, how you just walked us through of who's like needed to
- 16:04be looped in. That's like quite the pool of
- 16:08people that could form an opinion or so how do you
- 16:11navigate that? Yeah, it's, it's really, it's
- 16:15really crazy to basically have all these hats on and, and, and
- 16:19shift between them. So basically in between a tech
- 16:23lab that I'm also managing. And then basically this, this
- 16:30role, which is more like an internal, I don't know, policy
- 16:34team or whatever, who is trying to put every or get everybody on
- 16:38the table. I think, I think this is just
- 16:45part of the role. And also what I, what I see in
- 16:48the industry is that this is an emerging role that many
- 16:52companies now have. And there are people in other
- 16:57companies who have similar challenges.
- 17:00And, and I think it's, it's, it's just necessary.
- 17:03Somebody needs to like, like connect the dots and make sure
- 17:09that the Dai topic is just steered in the right way.
- 17:14And, and this is you, you cannot like the, the, the topic is just
- 17:19so big. You cannot, like, you cannot do
- 17:20it this on your own. You cannot just like make
- 17:23decisions on your own. You have to get everybody
- 17:24involved. So it's it's just you have to do
- 17:28it this way or I think it will fail, you know?
- 17:32And when you now build or deploy the AI systems with the lab that
- 17:37you have also the, you know, partnerships that you form, what
- 17:41are key decisions of where like transparency, ethics and like
- 17:47the technological infrastructure that's needed collide?
- 17:54So, yeah, so I think there are like obviously like several
- 17:57layers of or at several layers, you basically have to integrate
- 18:04safety and also make sure that the system basically responds in
- 18:09the way that is aligned with how you want it to respond and also
- 18:16make sure that your ethical standards are met.
- 18:20I think on a very low level, you basically have like the
- 18:26decisions for the the models that you use in your system.
- 18:29So basically we we make sure that we use models that we think
- 18:34put a lot of effort into meeting ethics standards and were
- 18:40transparent about, you know how they are at least a little bit
- 18:45more transparent about how they train their models.
- 18:48And also that they put efforts into making sure that these
- 18:52models to at least to certain extent comply with some ethical
- 18:58standards. So like we're not like
- 19:01triggering hate speech or harmful content.
- 19:07So that's on the on the model base where you basically select
- 19:10certain types of model that you want to integrate into your
- 19:13systems. And then basically on top of
- 19:15that, you just build up the system.
- 19:17So, and then it really depends on like what kind of system you
- 19:21built. Do you build something for
- 19:22internal use that is basically, I don't know, drafting something
- 19:27or used in The Newsroom for like research purpose or for giving
- 19:34you feedback on, on your article or anything like that.
- 19:39Then we have different constraints and then we
- 19:41basically can do like some internal testing.
- 19:43We have feedback loops, these kind of things.
- 19:46We also have the human in the loop principles.
- 19:48So everything that where AI is used will always be reviewed by
- 19:52human. And then we have other systems
- 19:55where we basically built AI systems that are user facing.
- 20:00So when users interact with AI systems, you cannot really make
- 20:04sure that every answer is proof read by humans.
- 20:07So basically then you have to double check that the system is
- 20:11working. Accordingly, so we do intensive
- 20:14red teaming. So basically we try to to get
- 20:20like the worst out of the bot, so to speak.
- 20:23So we're trying to trick the bot into giving us answers that the
- 20:27bot shouldn't give us. We're trying to jailbreak the
- 20:30bot in a way and only if like this red teaming and and several
- 20:36other tests are positive, then we are rolling the system out to
- 20:40the users. And then even if we rolled the
- 20:43system out, we always make sure that we have feedback loop and
- 20:47can check, check that the quality is good.
- 20:54So yeah, several levels. Yeah.
- 20:56I mean, that's amazing. And I think particularly when
- 20:59you talk about the quality and coming back also to the craft
- 21:03part of like output in itself or in the way that like news are
- 21:10being brought to the market. Basically, we live in an era
- 21:13where deep fake has never been that easy to produce.
- 21:16And also like synthetic content that is actually not real but
- 21:21artificial like logically, but is supposed to be hyper
- 21:27personalized. It's also supposed to be in real
- 21:29time. But still, there's this like
- 21:31underlying feeling that I cannot trust of what I see in the news
- 21:37that I consume anymore. And where is the tipping point
- 21:41at which, like AI begins to distort reality more than it
- 21:46supports it for you and also from your experience in the
- 21:50field? I think we, we already reached a
- 21:55point where this is like really a topic that we should take
- 21:59seriously on several levels, also on our societal level.
- 22:04And we need to like bring these discussions to the table.
- 22:08There are studies that are showing that the majority of
- 22:12content that is now being published online is AI created.
- 22:17And from like anecdotal consumption of social media, you
- 22:22can really see that there are a lot of instances where I'm not
- 22:26able or where at at least I takes me several minutes to
- 22:30basically think about if videos are real or not.
- 22:33And, and I can't really tell. And these are obviously only the
- 22:37examples that trigger this. There might be a lot of videos
- 22:41that I see that are AI created and I'm I'm, I just don't
- 22:46realize it anymore. So so I think this is really
- 22:50really an important topic that we need to bring to the table
- 22:54also to be discussed by our politicians, by those who shape
- 22:59basically the guardrail. It's the, the, the, the laws
- 23:03also for, for how basically the media landscape is, is created
- 23:07because I think ultimately also like our democracy needs that we
- 23:12have trustworthy media that basically is, is helping the
- 23:20people in the country to shape their opinions in a way that
- 23:25they're not just influenced by AI content.
- 23:28And if we look at a very at the political, like the global
- 23:34political landscape right now, there are many actors that can
- 23:38definitely use AI for purposes that are very bad and that can
- 23:44really harm our society. So, so this is not, not
- 23:49something that maybe we need to talk about.
- 23:54It's this is a serious topic that we need to talk about.
- 23:57And I think like for us as a media company, we also have a
- 24:01responsibility to, to, to participate into mitigating the
- 24:06situation and basically helping people to build trust.
- 24:10And I think for us this, this like, I mean, we have to
- 24:14basically fight against this huge amount of synthetic
- 24:22content. We have to be visible.
- 24:25We have to convince our readers that we are trustworthy every
- 24:31day again and again and build up our communities and our
- 24:35audiences. I think we, we put a lot of
- 24:37effort into, in into doing this and, and this like to, to be, to
- 24:44be relevant in the future means to basically use AI but use it
- 24:48in a good way and also show others that AI is it's, it's
- 24:56not, it's not ultimately bad. It's, it's also, it's, it's in a
- 24:59way also like tool. So if you're a bad actor and use
- 25:02a tool for bad purposes, it can be very harmful.
- 25:05But if you are somebody who tries to build up trust and be
- 25:09trustworthy, you can also use AI.
- 25:11But you have to make sure to use it in a transparent way.
- 25:14Because then we can basically compete with this AI slot that
- 25:19is out there and be visible and show users that we have
- 25:25trustworthy information that they can consume.
- 25:29And if you now think about like the way that you work, it's
- 25:33mostly like summarized under the like newsroom that you like are
- 25:40sometimes even literally in the room with.
- 25:43And the way that you just reflected upon the impact of
- 25:47trustworthy news versus like the fake news and the way that also
- 25:52media like companies need to bring this to the consumer.
- 25:58Does it have an impact on The Newsroom in an AI world, so to
- 26:04say? And if so, if you yourself could
- 26:08redesign a newsroom today for like the future, how would you
- 26:13like? How would you set it up?
- 26:15Why and how to get there? That's a really good question.
- 26:22Yeah, I think that there could be a whole podcast episode in in
- 26:25itself. So maybe I'll focus on on two
- 26:28points. I think.
- 26:29I think one truth that a lot of media companies still struggle
- 26:35with is that news is inherently shifting from text to other
- 26:41forms. It's more today, it's more about
- 26:44audio, it's podcasts, it's video on social media platforms that
- 26:51are consumed as a news source, especially by younger
- 26:54generations. And we have to acknowledge this.
- 26:58And I think in newsroom of the future would be a lot more video
- 27:05first, podcast 1st and article second, I would say.
- 27:13So that's one thing. And then also maybe the other
- 27:16thing would be to also, yeah, design the The Newsroom AI
- 27:24first. Because as you can imagine,
- 27:27there are people who have been in journalism for 20 or 30 years
- 27:34and they have a typical way how they, how they work, how they,
- 27:39how they structure the work. And I think if you look at young
- 27:44startups, for instance, at Morning Crunch, which is a
- 27:49newsletter first news company, they build up a newsroom that is
- 27:59basically AI first. So, and what that means
- 28:03basically is to rethink every component of the process in
- 28:08terms of where can we maximize the efficiency of AI for this
- 28:13process without compromising any of the quality.
- 28:17And I mean, obviously it's always easy to design this on
- 28:21Greenfield and it's much more difficult to basically transform
- 28:31legacy media into a new newsroom.
- 28:34But but yeah, maybe maybe two things that I would that I would
- 28:38emphasize is to, to go on on something like video 1st or the
- 28:411st and then basically create a create a more streamlined AI
- 28:47first process of of how to work in The Newsroom.
- 28:52And I like that you are so like specific about the forms of
- 28:58content and like how it depends on the like, generations,
- 29:02consumption, also the habits that we've formed.
- 29:05But doesn't that also inherently mean that we need to think about
- 29:08distribution of content? So currently, I would almost say
- 29:14everyone's consuming media through social media and like on
- 29:20a, let's say classical way that you go to a website or app of a
- 29:25specific like news house. However, if we I now understand
- 29:30you correctly, you also propose that the way that we like
- 29:34consume it via the distribution channels will massively change
- 29:39because the forms of contents change.
- 29:42Or how would you also view that of like a prerequisite for media
- 29:51houses to link it to the production?
- 29:55And how would you then also regard it to be enabled through
- 30:00AI or maybe also like challenged by AI because it's not possible
- 30:06to for whatever reason? Yeah, I think, I think the
- 30:13distribution also matters. In an ideal world, and I would
- 30:17say like in a especially in a world before the introduction of
- 30:21Cha Chi PT and Google AI overviews, Google AI mode, these
- 30:25kind of things, we always as publishing houses after the
- 30:31introduction of Internet, we were aiming for having direct
- 30:34relationships to our consumers and basically making sure that
- 30:38people will find us with relevant keywords that they
- 30:42search for and then basically click on a link and then they
- 30:45are on our website. What we see now today is that
- 30:50this is becoming increasingly difficult and more and more
- 30:54difficult basically because this this old contract of the
- 31:00Internet, the search contract that you basically get referral
- 31:06clicks for your content. This is not not really working
- 31:09anymore. We see that ChatGPT and Google
- 31:13AI overviews are having significantly lower click
- 31:17through rates and referral traffic.
- 31:19So, so it's becoming harder and harder to basically get people
- 31:23on your, on your websites. And, and this is also true for,
- 31:31for, for social media because it's, it's really difficult to,
- 31:35to get out of there and, and, and the platforms make sure to
- 31:38build up this water garden basically that's keeping people
- 31:41inside the, the platform. However, I think it's, it's
- 31:47still relevant to basically try getting people onto your
- 31:52websites and to your products and to build up direct
- 31:55relationships with them. I think there are a lot more
- 32:00opportunities that media companies now explore.
- 32:02This could be live events, this could be, I don't know,
- 32:07mailings. This could be WhatsApp channels
- 32:09that are like directly connected to your journalists and editors.
- 32:13So basically like I think in the core is to build up this
- 32:18relationship between you and and your readers and your audience
- 32:23and make the best of how this how the the media landscape is
- 32:27right now. And then I mean, on another
- 32:30level, I think, and this is more on, on the political level, I
- 32:35think we have to make sure to basically have a media landscape
- 32:39that is, that is taking into account to basically have a, a
- 32:46level playing field and have a, have a fair, fair market where
- 32:54basically users are still able to, to get to, to the sources
- 33:00and, and to get to the publishing companies.
- 33:02Because as as a citizen of the country, I I strongly believe we
- 33:07need independent media and we have to make sure that this that
- 33:15this market still exists and will exist in the future.
- 33:19And sorry, I I need to go. That was like a jump off point
- 33:23for me into one of my passion topics, independent media.
- 33:28And you linked it to because I'm a citizen of this country.
- 33:32So you inherently linked like independent media to the
- 33:36political landscape. And one key question that I
- 33:40always have myself is how do we get there?
- 33:44What would you propose? That's a.
- 33:48That's a good question. If I would have the solution,
- 33:52I'd probably have a. Different head on your head.
- 33:57Yes, that would be really great if if somebody had the solution.
- 34:03No, I think, I think, I think we have to at one point we have to
- 34:08fight for like for, for a European standpoint and the
- 34:12whole ecosystem because a lot of the media landscape today is
- 34:17also shaped by big tech companies from the US and also
- 34:22China. So basically we have to
- 34:24basically build up our own standpoint.
- 34:27This doesn't really mean to like cut off every connection to
- 34:33them, but to basically find an agreement.
- 34:37And I think, I think as I mentioned, the technology's
- 34:44evolving so rapidly and I, I think like within this journey
- 34:47also, I myself have like change my perspective on certain
- 34:53things. And, and also on this question,
- 34:56I would, I'm, I'm still a little bit optimistic that that I think
- 35:01there is the potential that after a very rapid and
- 35:05disruptive introduction of AI platforms like Chechi PT or also
- 35:11the new AI summaries in Google, that we now can basically get
- 35:17back to the table and negotiate with those companies also on
- 35:22different levels, politics, the media companies and everybody
- 35:26who was involved to basically find solutions that work for
- 35:30everybody. Because I think in the end, this
- 35:36experience shift that we observed with AI that was
- 35:40introduced by chair GPT mainly and now is you can see in many
- 35:44platforms, this is not going away.
- 35:46I think because as a consumer, I love, I love this.
- 35:49It's really, really nice way of getting information in a very
- 35:53condensed way. And now we just have to
- 35:56basically figure out how we can work with this new technology in
- 36:01a way that independent media can still survive.
- 36:07So right now I already have at least two another episodes that
- 36:11I would want to do to the like first, The Newsroom of the
- 36:14Future and 2nd Independent Media.
- 36:16How do we get there? But for now, we're almost at the
- 36:21end of this one. So I do want to cherish the
- 36:24moment and have some so-called in between moments with you.
- 36:28They are intuitive ones. And these are the ones where you
- 36:32literally just share what comes to your mind 1st.
- 36:36And I do want to start with like a key question for me to you,
- 36:40what does trust and media feel like?
- 36:44I would say it feels like a handshake that must be renewed
- 36:48every single day. That is such a great visual.
- 36:55Let's see how we can include that.
- 36:56Anyways, what should I never do? I think it should never make
- 37:03decisions that are for good reason, still in the hands of
- 37:07people, like hiring people for instance.
- 37:10And what will journalists always do?
- 37:14I think journalists will always provide the context, they will
- 37:18bring in the empathy and also their very own and unique
- 37:23standpoint on how things are in the world.
- 37:29What is the future of news? To make producing news very
- 37:38efficient and high quality thanks to AI with the very
- 37:43thorough overview of human experts.
- 37:50And do you have an experience that you yourself are currently
- 37:54in between? Yeah, I think in between.
- 38:02I think I'm I'm always in between hype and reality when it
- 38:07comes to AI because sometimes we're just thinking the whole
- 38:12world change and then in the reality it's maybe not as big as
- 38:16we think. And if we now close the session
- 38:23and finish it with just a link to take and trust topic, and if
- 38:29we if we assume that trust becomes a decisive competitive
- 38:34advantage in media, what does it mean in your role to be a trust
- 38:38builder when it comes to the future of media news?
- 38:44I think to, to build up trust is it is really important to, to be
- 38:53very transparent inside the company and also to your
- 38:58audience about how you want to use AI, how you use it, what AI
- 39:02is, what it can and what it can't.
- 39:06And to basically for me like what is really at my heart to
- 39:11everybody at Funker, to everybody who works at the
- 39:14company, give them the opportunity to understand this
- 39:18technology as good and as deep as they want, give them all the
- 39:22resources. Because I think ultimately, and
- 39:25this basically links back to what I said in the beginning, I
- 39:29think trust is built on experience and understanding of
- 39:33technology. Thank you so much for your time
- 39:38and diving so deep into how you had fungus set up, AI overall,
- 39:44but also how you view it for the industry.
- 39:48It was super valuable conversation.
- 39:50It was great having you. Thanks so much.
- 39:53Thanks Yvonne, it was fun.