Learnings from a study of the Nordic market stress the importance of sharing the value readers get from the use of AI in news generation.

In an interview with Reuters Institute’s Marina Adami, AI expert Agnes Stenbom says publishers need to show readers how news produced by journalists is better than other forms of information online.

“The likely increase of AI-generated content online will surely have consequences for how audiences perceive editorial news media and the content we produce,” the head of Schibsted/Tinius Trust initiative IN/LAB says.

She points to data from the recent Reuters Digital News Report that audiences are still broadly uncomfortable with publishers using AI to produce news, but says this will vary with time and context. “Publishers need to keep a close dialogue with users to understand when and how AI provides value for them.”

Stenbom (pictured) is co-founder of Nordic AI Journalism and co-organiser of its Nordic AI in Media summit (with Swedish Radio head of AI and news strategy Olle Zachrison).

On behalf of Schibsted, she has also been studying the research and exploration of AI, trust and catering to hard-to-reach audiences. Stenbom heads IN/LAB, which she founded, and is exploring innovation for ‘news outsiders’ – those not currently consuming or trusting editorial news – following discussions with group editor Einar Hålien. "In short, two parallel trends motivated me to start the lab.

“We could see an escalating trend of news avoidance and information fragmentation,” she says. “I was concerned about the wider social effects of independent news media not reaching or serving certain kinds of people, specifically those with relatively low levels of economic and cultural capital.

“I wanted to put that topic higher on our industry's agenda as I believe it is of critical importance to both the media business and the role we play in democracies.”

Stenbom says her background in AI practice and research made her concerned about the industry “only focusing on our existing audience when exploring emerging technologies.

“I was worried that we would use our new tools to do more for those we were already serving while neglecting the growing groups of people completely out of our reach.”

She expresses concern that increased personalisation may lead to less shared understanding, “the gradual deconstruction of a shared narrative of our time – “when everybody gets information catered to their needs and interests, packaged in a way assumed to fit their desires, what happens to our shared understanding of events?” – and says newsroom leaders need to understand that having technical oversight means having editorial and commercial oversight.

Projects to watch include Aftonbladet’s AI-powered chatbot go-live for the EU elections, and JP Politiken’s multitasking MAGNA API chatbot tool.