Following a series of breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence, new technologies are emerging, ushering innovations in all aspects of business and society, impacting also the media, journalism and politics.
The media market is already benefiting from AI support across the value chain, including tools & services for information analysis, media editing, content generation, content optimisation, content recommendation, audience preferences analysis, etc. Society and politics are also affected by AI while concerns are rising that the combination of the power of major social media platforms and other AI technology companies with the large-scale automation capabilities of AI could prove detrimental to society and democracy.
AI technologies are disrupting the media industry through advances in content creation, analysis, and distribution, by enhancing user experience but also by offering deeper insights into complex social processes that unfold online or offline. AI technology could help shape the democratic role of media by enabling new ways of being informed, of entertainment, artistic creation, political participation, and decision making. In addition, AI could support the relationship between media providers and their audiences, helping to align with the needs of media users, and also cut down operating costs and free up resources for more in-depth and quality work. In addition, AI can create opportunities for the better realization of public values like media diversity, freedom of expression, and inclusiveness.
Motivated by these challenges, risks and opportunities, AI4Media aimed to i) deliver the next generation of AI technologies for the media, ii) ensure the development of ethical and trustworthy AI, and iii) reimagine AI as a human-centred, trusted and beneficial enabling technology for media and society.
These goals were successfully achieved by setting and accomplishing the following strategic objectives:
• Define Europe's research agenda for media AI, monitor AI impact, provide policy analysis & recommendations, and establish an AI Media Observatory.
• Extend Europe's expertise in AI for media, focusing on four areas: (1) emerging ML paradigms, decentralised learning and AI at the Edge; (2) robustness, fairness, explainability, and privacy in AI; (3) AI for multimedia content analysis & creation; and (4) human- & society-centred AI technologies.
• Contribute to the development of a European ethical brand of AI for media applications.
• Establish the International AI Doctoral Academy, a PhD programme on AI.
• Support and enrich the European AI on Demand platform.
• Integrate AI tools in real-world media industry applications and workflows through seven use cases.
