Cooperative media system a response to the challenges of the AI information society

APA CEO Pig: “Expansion of cooperation necessary in the fight against disinformation” – 32nd Austrian Media Days marked by cooperation

The traditional media system and liberal democracy are facing major challenges in view of Big Tech platforms, the “marriage” of social media and artificial intelligence (AI) to “synthetic media”, and growing disinformation. In order to withstand these challenges, Clemens Pig, CEO of APA – Austria Press Agency, called for a significant expansion of the cooperative approach at the 32nd Austrian Media Days in Vienna. In an interview with “Furche” Editor-in-Chief Doris Helmberger-Fleckl, he outlined a forward-looking operating system for the new, cooperative media system in an emerging AI information society under the title “Modus Co-Operandi”.

“None of us can immediately tell whether content is fake or real,” Pig said on Thursday, sounding the alarm. In an AI information society, a new, cooperative media system is necessary to counter this development as well as economic difficulties. “Cooperation between competing companies is becoming the driving force behind how media survive economically,” according to APA’s CEO. We are already at the transition from a dual to a cooperative media system. On the basis of this, the media must join forces to form a new, cooperative ecosystem, using the mechanisms and logic of the platform economy to their advantage in order to assert themselves in a digital (dis)information society that has become intransparent. “At the end of the day, public and private media will hopefully be on the same side against Big Tech, which is putting us under so much pressure,” Pig said. He is committed to establishing joint media platforms that are operated under cooperative ownership. In a contributing article in “Horizont”, he proposed, for instance, a “GPT-Austria” as a cross-media service for users. Such an AI media chatbot would operate transparently and in legal compliance on the basis of fact-based training data and news. He also sees potential for an “AI centre” – a collaborative AI platform for the media to personalise verified content. A media lab could be set up to finance tools for fake news detection and IT infrastructure could be shared to reduce costs.

Pig cites news agencies as already established cooperation models and mentions cross-media login solutions such as MediaKey as a successful example: “In Austria, more than half a million people now access our media content via MediaKey – and the trend is growing.” Other international blueprints for cooperative newsroom management include the European Newsroom in Brussels, the Trusted AI Hub of European news agencies, and cross-country and cross-industry programmes to combat disinformation. “In addition to logistical frameworks, we need well-functioning vessels in order to be able to invest in the future and offer new solutions,” Pig is convinced. For him, “Modus Co-Operandi” represents a future operating system for a new, cooperative media system that distinguishes itself from social and synthetic media and preserves the essence of independent journalism for liberal democracies.

Contributing article for HORIZONT by Clemens Pig:

Modus Co-Operandi