On 13 October, WASP-HS, together with WARA Media and Language, welcomed representatives from the media industry and researchers to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on media. The broad theme resulted in a broad event taking place at three places simultaneously; at Electonic Arts / DICE premises in Stockholm, at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, and at Umeå University.
There are multiple stakeholders involved when creating media through the use of AI, this creates questions of ownership and copyright issues. AI may be able to assist artists and media creators with mundane tasks, but what if the mundane tasks are important to spark inspiration? AI may increase democracy in the media landscape due to the empowerment to take on production for producers. These were some of the issues raised during the event.
After an introduction by Professor Virginia Dignum, WASP-HS Program Director, and Associate Professor Johanna Björklund, Director of WARA Media and Language, keynote speaker Mark Harrisson, CEO of The DPP, presented an interesting talk on the impact of AI on the broadcasting industry.
“You can imagine that compliance and preparation of media creation is well suited for automatization. The barrier here, is that every media organization is of the view that whatever is done by the robot (AI) has to be checked. So, you get this marriage between technology and people. It is very effective, and it does enable companies to handle more scale, but it does not necessarily induce costs. This leads us to the question, what would it take for us to believe that a robot is more trustworthy than a human?”, said Mark Harrisson.
Roundtable Discussions
After the keynote, the over 90 participants started the discussions on the different topics related to AI and media. The topics were the following.
A Shift in Culture Through AI (at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg)
Chaired by Kivanc Tatar, Assistant Professor, Interaction Design and Software Engineering division, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology
Co-chaired by Petter Ericson, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Computing Science, Umeå University
AI for Text Generation (at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg)
Chaired by Aarne Ranta, Professor, Computing Science Division, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology
AI for Music (at Electronic Arts / DICE premises in Stockholm)
Chaired by Bob Sturm, Associate Professor, Division of Speech, Music and Hearing, Royal Institute of Technology
Co-chaired by Andre Holzapfel, Associate Professor, Division of Media Technology and Interaction Design he KTH Royal Institute of Technology
AI for Gaming (at Electronic Arts / DICE premises in Stockholm)
Chaired Konrad Tollmar, Electronic Arts and Royal Institute of Technology
AI for Movie Production (at Electronic Arts / DICE premises in Stockholm)
Chaired by Mark Harrisson, CEO at the DPP
AI in Politics (at Umeå University)
Chaired by Simon Lindgren, Professor, Department of Sociology, Umeå University
Co-chaired by Mona Forsman, Head of the Research and Development at Adlede
Publication for All
The discussions have been written recorded and will be summarized in a report for everyone to take part of. The finished report will be published in the beginning of December on the WASP-HS website.
WASP-HS Community Reference Meetings
WASP-HS Community Reference Meetings are intended for public and private organizations in Sweden, and for stakeholders who want to learn more about the challenges and issues related to artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact. It is also an opportunity for WASP-HS to share the latest research developments within the program to identify opportunities for collaboration across sectors. In short, the meetings serve as a place for discussions on the AI impact on different sectors and where we want AI to be in the future.
