As the four-year AI4Media project is coming to an end this year, we look back at their achievements and the legacy they leave us with. Initiated and funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, the project developed into a Centre of Excellence engaging a wide network of researchers across Europe and beyond, focusing on delivering the next generation of core AI advances and training to serve the Media sector, while ensuring that the European values of ethical and trustworthy AI are embedded in future AI deployments.
The Observatory
One of the AI4Media’s core organs is the European AI Media Observatory; a knowledge platform that monitors and curates relevant research on AI in media, provides expert perspectives on the potentials and challenges that AI poses for the media sector and allows stakeholders to easily get in touch with relevant experts in the field. The aim of the observatory is to support the ongoing efforts of the multidisciplinary community of professionals who are working towards ensuring responsible use of AI in the media sector and contribute to the broader discussion and understanding of the development and use of AI in the sector and its impacts on society, economy and people. The Observatory publishes content that focuses on the impact of AI in the media sector such as impacts of legislation changes, economic impacts in the sector, societal impacts, or social and ethical approaches to AI. Anna Schjøtt Hansen, PhD candidate under Natali Helberger an member of the AI, Media and Democracy Lab, is the editor-in-chief of the observatory.
One of the most recent observatory initiatives addresses how the media sector is responding to content crawling for model training through the creation of a growing repository of resources. It aims to monitor how media organisations and content creators are responding to content scraping activities that fuel AI models and is intended as a living and growing collection of resources that will evolve over time. As the repository is relying on crowdsourced contributions to expand the collection of resources, the AI4Media lab invites you to add to the public collection here.
Anna Schjøtt Hansen on societal concerns of AI application in media
On June 19, 2024, the AI4Media project organised the event “EU Vision for Media Policy in the Era of AI“ in Brussels. It focussed on the EU’s legal frameworks that aim to mitigate the risks of AI’s influence on media processes, spotlighting pivotal legislation such as the Digital Services Act, the European Media Freedom Act, and the AI Act. With a keynote speech from the Flemish Minister for Brussels Affairs, Youth, Media and Poverty Reduction, the event provided unique perspectives from the Belgian regulators involved in the enforcement of the relevant legislation. It gathered media practitioners, researchers, and regulators to discuss how EU media policy in the era of AI is shaping the media landscape and the broader societal implications.
There, Anna Schjøtt Hansen presented key societal concerns of AI applications in Media and mapped out a journey towards identifying policy needs for media organizations. To read more about the six cross-cutting policy needs identified by relevant stakeholders during the industry and policy workshop, see the AI4Media White Paper on the social, economic and political impact of media AI technologies. To find out about the key takeaways from the event see here.
Lidia Dutkiewicz at TuesdAI
As part of the AI4Media Junior Fellows Exchange Program, Lidia Dutkiewicz a PhD candidate from the Centre for IT & IP Law – imec (CiTiP) of the KU Leuven, presented her PhD research at the AI, Media & Democracy Lab TuesdAI meeting. Lidia’s project titled “Safeguarding news content on online platforms: Platform regulation from a freedom of expression perspective” looks at how algorithmic content moderation affects freedom and pluralism of the media. She analyses the policy and legislative instruments such as the DSA, EMFA, prominence and “must-carry” rules, as well as the CJEU and ECtHR case law, to develop a novel normative framework for safeguarding news content online.
We express our gratitude to AI4Media for initiating a multitude of interesting projects that we can learn from and continue as the AI4Media project is coming to an end.
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