For three days starting June 1, the world's media spotlight turned to Marseille, France. The reason was the 77th World News Media Congress (WNMC) held there. The congress slogan was "Rising Voices, Looming Risks, Inspiring Futures." Heated debates centered on artificial intelligence (AI). Participants sought solutions to the question of how the press can survive in an era when AI is shaking up the production, distribution and revenue of news.
A.G. Sulzberger, chairman of The New York Times (NYT), criticized "the blatant theft by AI companies." Yet he also stressed that "using AI is absolutely necessary." Varun Sethi, a vice president at OpenAI, drew a line by saying "advertising revenue cannot be shared with news organizations," and proposed that "the press should consider how to use AI for its newsrooms and readers." The crisis facing media was clear, but the solution was not.
At the Global Digital Media Awards (DMA) held at the event, Sedaily beat the NYT. The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) selected Sedaily's AI journalism ecosystem 'AI LINK' as the "Best AI-Driven News Product, Format, or Strategy" in the world. AI LINK won particular praise for its intricate structuring of 'PRISM', a reader-customized news service; 'WAVE', which converts text articles into video; and 'GLOBE', which translates them into English. It was also recognized that, through the AI news ecosystem, readers can keep up with the flow of countless issues pouring out and receive quality content tailored to their needs.
Media Giants Confined Within Their Own Walls = The NYT has more than 3,000 reporters and over 500 technical staff. The Washington Post (WP) is similar. Thousands of reporters and hundreds of engineers handle AI.
The larger the organization, the greater its capital and the more robust its systems, but reporters and engineers build high walls of their own "expertise." Reporters and engineers are the best in their respective fields, but passive about collaboration. The larger the system, the longer and more complex the path for an article to reach readers.
That is the case with the NYT's investigative reporting tool 'Cheat Sheet.' It was created by a dedicated team of eight, mainly engineers. Reporters were users who simply received the tool. This is not unique to the NYT. Most AI journalism tools operate that way. The makers and the users are separated.
The walls are higher than expected. Even when reporters voice the inconveniences of the field, it is hard for their concerns to reach engineers. The functions reporters want and the functions engineers build are often different. The gap between field problems and technical solutions is wide, and the more staff there are, the wider it grows.
'AI LINK', Where Reporters Are Developers = AI LINK was different. It was made not by engineers but by reporters in the newsroom. Because the reporter is also the developer, they are well-versed in the media environment and, on that basis, can build quality services from the reader's perspective.
It began in March 2024. Sedaily raised "AI and Journalism" as its central theme. Reporters' repetitive tasks, articles bound to text, articles blocked by language barriers. The company was convinced the solution could be found in AI.
In the AI project where reporters write articles, reporters directly updated the prompts. When the results were unsatisfactory, they revised them immediately. New models were updated right away. Reporters solved reporters' problems. The user and the maker were one and the same. In this way, the reporter assistance tool 'NOVA' was tempered through more than 300 projects.
'PRISM', 'WAVE' and 'GLOBE' were also built up one by one by reporters themselves. AI-built bridges were laid to connect reporters and articles, articles and readers, text and video, Korean and English into one. The benefits return to readers. They can access news across borders tailored to their own environment and interests.
A Result of 'Building an Ecosystem' Beyond a Single Tool = This year, five works advanced to the finals in the AI category. The NYT's 'Cheat Sheet' is a tool that helps reporters with investigative reporting. Switzerland's Ringier 'EqualVoice' checks the gender balance of coverage. Georgia's JRC 'AINews' is an AI anchor. Lebanon and Egypt's 'Framing Gaza' is an AI tool that analyzes the framing of Gaza coverage. All four are single tools that do one thing well. They help either reporters or readers, one side or the other. Only AI LINK was different. It starts from the article and crosses over reader types, formats and languages.
Single tools are relatively easy to build, while building an ecosystem is not. Production, distribution and readers must all be threaded into one flow. In fact, smaller newsrooms have some advantages over larger ones.
The DMA judging results showed that this is not a matter of the capital invested or the size of the workforce. They looked at the difference in the perspective on the problem and the solution to it. While competing works sought a "better tool," Sedaily looked toward an "ecosystem connecting reporters and readers."
AI LINK proved that media's use of AI is not solely a matter of capital and manpower. The reader-customized service, AI PRISM, began with development support from the Korea Press Foundation, and its cloud foundation was established with support from Amazon Web Services (AWS). On that foundation, reporters added the engine to build it.
The path toward readers is set to keep extending. Readers are expected to encounter customized news across various apps. The daily-logging app 'D·LOG' is preparing an upgraded version of AI PRISM. AI PRISM can deliver customized news to various apps.
The question Marseille posed was "how can the press use AI?" It was an occasion where Korean media first showed that reporters can break through the wall of technology with AI, and the world acknowledged that answer.
