About the AI & Media Lab
The Dutch media sector is always moving in sync with the digital transition. Whereas prior innovations drastically shifted traditional media organisations’ working methods to include the internet, mobile phones and social media, the media sector now faces the challenge of effectively, responsibly and meaningfully developing and implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. This concerns the full scope of the media field; from methods for complex data analyses to technology that contributes to public engagement. This makes the media sector a hotbed of experimentation for the cultural sector and creative industry.
Human-centred AI development
The AI & Media Lab is a cooperation between Utrecht University, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and Media Perspectives alongside a varied network of partners from the IT sector and creative industry. The lab’s objective is to contribute to the digital transition at media and cultural organisations by developing new knowledge, applications and methods in the field of AI and data science. Human-centred development is the point of departure. It does justice to the needs and interests of citizens and professionals as well as introducing ethics by design and open knowledge sharing.
The lab focuses on media service providers, professionals and consumers. Through research and development, it contributes to design, technology, operations and effects on users. The core principle for this is digital ethics: the safeguarding of the explainability and transparency of algorithms.
Transdisciplinary cooperation
The cooperation will be initiated by multiple research groups including Multimedia, Human-Centered Computing and Social & Affective Computing at Utrecht University and the professorships Artificial Intelligence, Human Experience & Media Design and Kwaliteitsjournalistiek in Digitale Transitie [Quality Journalism in Digital Transition] at the HU University of Applied Sciences.
Together, the institutions contribute to a research and education programme with and for media partners, in order to co-create knowledge, recommendations and applications. Alongside researchers and (media) professionals, these developments also involve students from various disciplines and levels of education. In this way, we contribute to a human capital agenda that can also be useful for SMEs and organisations in other sectors.
Themes
A number of the research themes staff at AI & Media Lab are working on include:
Games & Esports
- AI applications that support the design and development of entertainment games and applied/serious games.
- AI applications that provide insights into player characteristics, esports teams, and player-game interactions.
Journalism
- AI applications that support journalists in their practice.
- AI applications that critically assess online media.
Combating Online Harm
- AI applications that counter misinformation, hate speech, and toxicity.
- AI applications that support individuals exposed to harmful behaviours.
- AI applications that support moderation in online communities.
Production
- AI applications for production processes such as personalised content access, automated archiving and access for the benefit of news services, automated production of news items, background reports and promos
- AI applications for journalists and other (media) professionals, such as research tools that help collect prejudice-free, valid information and tell stories that provide insight into qualitative and quantitative performance as well as the substantive and instrumental needs of users/audience groups
Accessibility
- AI applications for increasing the safety of and confidence in online interactions such as identifying fake news, filtering and other forms of online gatekeeping for media professionals
- AI applications for multimodal access to media collections based on textual, visual and audio characteristics.
User interaction
- Human-AI interaction: which information should AI help generate and how? How can (media) professionals and users modify the ways algorithms work as well as their output? How can confidence in and acceptance of AI among professionals be improved?
- Speech interaction and conversational agents (chat bots)
- AI for personalised interactions that result in improved commitment and are perceived to be more seamless.
Joint website
Our joint website provides further information on the cooperations between Media Perspectives, Hogeschool Utrecht, Utrecht University and media organisations: aimedialab.nl.