Why AI Will Not Solve the Media Crisis: Publix Director Maria Exner at re:publica 2026

Where journalism is under pressure, AI appears to be a miracle tool: produce faster, work more cheaply, distribute more content. But in reality, it only makes the media crisis worse, says Publix director Maria Exner. So what do the media and democracy need instead? “The crisis is not a problem of too little content, but of trust, attention, and orientation,” says Exner.

The key question, she argues, is not: What can AI do? Which processes can it automate? How efficient can it make newsrooms? — but rather: What kind of public sphere do we want to create with it?

“If we continue to leave the infrastructure of public information entirely in the hands of the major platforms, we will ultimately lose the ability to shape democratic public discourse ourselves. That is why we now need investments in independent, public-interest-oriented digital infrastructure — and in a journalism that becomes not only more efficient, but more socially relevant.”