Here's how AI will transform mainstream media

Major Shanghai media entities entered into strategic alliances with leading technological companies at the ongoing World Artificial Intelligence Conference.

On Sunday afternoon, at a forum on "AI-powered Systematic Transformation of Mainstream Media," Jiefang Daily signed an agreement with Kupas to cooperate on developing a corpus.

Shanghai Observer, a new media platform owned by Jiefang, will also work with Tencent to conduct research on the breakthroughs and progress of news media in the AI era.

As a Shanghai-based news platform reporting throughout China, in recent years there has been no let-up in the Shanghai Observer's exploration of the use of AI technology.

Since 2022, Shanghai Observer has participated in setting up the first large-scale corpus data alliance in China, and has kicked off a series of experiments in AIGC.

In 2023, it developed a series of AI functions that could be deployed in news gathering and editing scenarios.

In 2024, its AI tool News Magic Pen won the second-prize in a large-model competition, with its first on-the-ground AI use in its coverage of the Paris Olympics last year.

On January 1 this year, it launched a wholly updated Shanghai Observer jointly hosted by Jiefang Daily, Wenhui Daily and Xinmin Evening News.

As a flagship news platform for Shanghai media, in the past six months, the three hosting media outlets have created a number of AI news products focused on the dissemination of mainstream values.

For instance, during the city's Two Sessions, it debuted an AI video series titled "Upwards, and upwards!"

The series sought to present major development challenges confronting the city in an eminently accessible and intriguing manner, by citing the government work report.

It is revealed that Shanghai Observer is undergoing a new round of renovation that, by leveraging four major AI functions, will effect the transition from mere content creation to user service.

The "Highlight" function, by marking key sentences, will help readers grasp the key message in three seconds, effectively alleviating the misery of tackling a long story.

"AI Dialogue" will provide news services interactively, signaling the intention to increase reader stickiness.

"AI Morning and Evening News" will push, to active readers, a tailor-made list of 10 news items in the light of reader profile.