AI, Media and Democracy

How will AI change media? What new opportunities can AI create for democracy? And what conditions need to be fulfilled for these things to happen? On 22 February 2021, The AI, Media and Democracy Lab was launched to look into these questions. A collaboration between the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) and CWI.

The AI, Media and Democracy Lab will work on today’s and tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities that AI and digital technology present for media and democracy, and combine this with cutting-edge research at the interface between social sciences, law, humanities and computer science.

The AI, Media & Democracy Lab focuses on how AI and digital technology are transforming media and democracy. The researchers will tackle specific issues surrounding the use of AI in the media, such as; ways in which we can develop more people-oriented and diverse systems,  look into the possible roles of chatbots in news outlets and explore what the media of tomorrow should like. The lab will bring together fundamental and applied research in the fields of law, ethics, communication science, media studies and computer science.

Nanda Piersma, lecturer in Responsible IT at AUAS and CWI researcher:
“In this collaboration between AUAS, the UvA and the CWI both academic and applied subjects and approaches will go hand-in-hand. Together with our consortium partners, we will design and implement tools that are truly responsible.”

Projects
Their projects will be clustered around 4 themes:

Cluster 1: Blue Sky Thinking: the Media of the Future

Cluster 2: Public values & AI

Cluster 3: Reshaping the relationship with the audience

Cluster 4: Creating the legal, ethical and organizational conditions for AI in the media

You can read more about the AI, Media and Democracy lab their website.

Read More