Digital assistants, powered by AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are becoming more and more a part of our daily lives – both professional and private. While the marketing hype often exceeds the reality, the fact is that Generative AI and all it enables is here to stay, and that our interactions with machines and media is undergoing a profound revolution. Should public service media build their own conversational interfaces, or even run their own LLMs? And if so, how? This workshop invited EBU members to discuss these and other topics.
Media companies and content producers are particularly affected by new Generative AI technology, but many are exploring how LLMs can be of benefit and help resolve some of their challenges. Indeed, many EBU members are developing their own systems based around LLMs, including:
... and many more.
One clear use-case is within content creation workflows, in assisting the analysis, creation and reworking of content by editors and journalists – proposing titles, more appropriate text formulations, summarizations, keyword extraction for discovery and SEO.
Another is potentially more audience-facing, with different RAG systems, which aim to offer a more direct and informed way to interact with the large volume of content that Broadcasters hold. By creating conversational interfaces, both citizens and media professionals can be given a more personalised and context-aware method to find relevant and trusted information, or to verify claims found elsewhere (e.g. social media disinformation).
Why does this matter?
Content created by Generative AI is flooding social media, which is increasingly used by younger audiences as their primary source of news and information. Public Service Media organisations can play a vital role in both giving them the tools and educating them on how to perform their own research, and build greater trust in public service content. Additionally, as LLMs become the lens through which information is gathered and distributed on connected user devices (e.g. Smart Speakers, Smart TVs, Connected Cars), device manufacturers are looking at trusted source of content - delivered on the fly to satisfy the growing needs of their users. To ensure the prominence of PSM content in this context, and leverage in the discussions we need to join forces.
