Why AI Won't Solve the Media Crisis

Many media companies view artificial intelligence as the answer to an industry under pressure: producing content faster, cutting costs, and reaching new audiences. But can AI truly solve the challenges facing journalism today? The greater potential may lie elsewhere: in the opportunities that open up when newsrooms view AI not as a cost-cutting measure, but as an opportunity to rethink their work.

How can AI create space for newsrooms to focus on what only humans can do: investigative reporting, critical analysis, and building a connection with the audience?
What new relationships with the audience does this make possible?

Some newsrooms are already successfully demonstrating how this can be achieved. Take, for example, the Danish news and media platform Zetland, led by Tav Klitgaard. Zetland is one of the pioneers of digital journalism in Europe. The platform consistently focuses on its community and in-depth journalism, and experiments with new technologies without losing sight of journalistic values.

Prof. Wiebke Loosen, one of the most prominent researchers on the digital transformation of journalism, will take the stage. For many years, she has been investigating how automation and AI are changing editorial work.

In her highly acclaimed re:publica talk, Publix Executive Director Maria Exner explored where AI reaches its limits in journalism and developed theories on what society and democracy truly need from the media.

Welcome: Sarah Luisa Thiele, Site Director, MIZ Babelsberg

The discussion will be held in English.

A Publix Thursday in cooperation with the Babelsberg Media Innovation Center (MIZ)—the hub of innovation for media and journalism in Berlin and Brandenburg. As an institution of the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority (mabb), it promotes new solutions at the intersection of media and technology, ensures that these innovations find their way into newsrooms and media companies in the region, and fosters a dialogue about the opportunities and risks of new technologies for journalism and the media industry.