Artificial intelligence (AI) now has a permanent place in the online editorial offices of media companies: AI technologies can not only predict how many people are likely to read an article, but also how many subscriptions and advertising revenue will result from it, explains the FAZ editor Carsten Knop in the latest episode of the FAZ podcast Artificial Intelligence.
The accuracy of the software is amazing: “For around half of all texts, our AI predicts the actual conversions very precisely or with only an extremely small deviation.
And on the other half, the AI is actually still mostly right.”
The AI also helps when searching for current topics.
A software from the American company Dataminr constantly trawls through posts on Twitter and independently recognizes newly emerging topics, such as Covid-19 or the storming of the Capitol.
The FAZ was therefore able to report on the fire in Notre Dame before the news agencies.
In the meantime, the FAZ is also getting tailor-made warnings about demonstrations or roof fires in the area for the Rhine-Main region.
"The alerts even arrive on my Apple Watch," reports Knop.
The AI is also used to predict possible cancellations of subscriptions.
But not all possibilities of using AI are exhausted.
Even if AI can already write articles on sporting events or quarterly reports from companies without errors, Knop has not yet seen the profitability of such text robots.
In addition, topics related to digitization in media companies, the future of online advertising and subscription models and the growing importance of the Chinese platform TikTok will be discussed in the conversation.
The episode is part of our podcast "Artificial Intelligence".
He explores the questions of what AI can do, where it is used, what it has already changed and what contribution it can make in the future.
With Peter Buxmann and Holger Schmidt, the FAZ brought two proven AI experts on board for the podcast: Both research and teach the potential of AI and its effects on the economy and work at the Technical University of Darmstadt.
Peter Buxmann holds the chair for business informatics and has been dealing with the applications of AI, digital transformation and data-based business models for many years.
His podcast partner Holger Schmidt is a digital economist, speaker and author.
His core topics are AI, platform economy and digital business models.
In each episode, the two hosts take up a new aspect of artificial intelligence, explain connections and provide precise classifications.
The episodes are around thirty minutes long and appear monthly on the first Monday.