Another insightful and informative AI Monday took place at Tiedekulma in the University of Helsinki on May 8th. This time, the conversation was led by three experts in the field of Generative AI and what it means for the media.
Watch the recap video below.
Hugo Gävert began the conversation with a few introductory words. Hugo is Chief Data and AI Officer at DAIN Studios, with 15 years of experience in data science across various sectors. Some of the key takeaways from his introduction were:
- The significance of the present day. With regard to generative AI, he said, “this is an interesting time because we’re taking huge leaps.”
- The difference between artificial narrow intelligence, artificial general intelligence, and artificial super-intelligence.
- ChatGPT and how it is being used in today’s landscape.
- Generative AI is a great partner for creativity, innovation and testing ideas.
At the end of his introductory talk, Hugo emphasized that we should all be aware of the privacy implications of ChatGPT. “Don’t put private [company] information into ChatGPT,” he said, “by default it’s used for training purposes… Use the APIs and playgrounds for that.”
The first speaker of the event was Aki Kekäläinen. Aki is a founding member of Yle News Lab where he leads three teams: Elections and Democracy, AI and Journalism, and Co-operations and Experiments. Aki has a long history of using technology and user-centered design methods to make the world a better place.
Some key points made in Aki’s talk about ‘AI & News’ were:
- Voitto – which is a model his company uses to create news-based content based on facts.
- How AI models will be used in news.
He took time to give his assessment about the implications of the emergence of generative AI in a news context stating:
“It’s not going to be fun and games. It’s going to be tough for us. Because we’re in the truth business….for society it’ll be difficult to know what’s true and what’s not. That is a problem.”“Journalists need more than ever to cut through the noise.”
Taking the stage after Aki, Päivi Ala-Risku spoke on the topic of ‘how can AI be used to benefit journalists, and most importantly, the readers?’
With a M. Sc. in Data Journalism, Päivi is a producer at the Helsingin Sanomat data desk—working on news automation, tools development, and data journalism projects.
- Päivi made clear that generative AI won’t ‘destroy’ journalism. By itself, ChatGPT lacks the means to reach the standard of professional journalism.
- She summarized that human input is always going to be needed.
At the same time, Päivi emphasized that the key was an AI “collaboration with journalists”.
Last to the mic was Antti Karppinen, who offered insights in the field of image generation.
An acclaimed photographer and digital artist, Antti specializes in corporate brand images and storytelling, working with clients such as Ponsse, Sievi, Honor, Jaguar, Under Armour, and BBC.
His talk was an education in the capabilities of generative AI in the field of visual production.
- He clarified that the more detailed the description in the prompt, the more detailed the final image.
- He offered information on negative prompts and underlined the importance of specifying the camera and lighting setup.
- He provided an outline on how to train AI models so that you get extra control on the styles and locations of executions.
Summarizing his thoughts about generative AI—Antti said, “it’s going to disrupt the whole thing.”
The finish off the evening was a panel discussion that was full of insights. In general it offered signs of hope for the future.
- Hugo Gävert asked, “how do you foresee the future of art…? It takes time to learn to paint, for instance, why would anybody do that?”
- Päivi Ala-Risku replied, “Well, I don’t know why anyone would write books for the last 100 years because there has been television and movies, but there are still people who write books and read. So, I’m not afraid there will be a huge disruption and no-one will want to paint any more.”
- Aki Kekäläinen also offered some optimism. “I hope in the future journalists will do less and less repetitive work and more and more investigating, talking to people, understanding… digging deeper.”
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