Jeddah (UNA) – The Union of News Agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (UNA) organized on Thursday (16 May 2024) in Kazan, Tatarstan, a workshop entitled: “New Tools for Newsrooms: Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence Technologies”, in cooperation with the Russian agency “Sputnik” and the “Tatmedia” news agency in Tatarstan.
The workshop was held within the framework of the Kazan Forum 2024 with the participation of a wide range of media professionals, and the presence of a number of directors of news agencies in the OIC countries.
The workshop opened with a speech by His Excellency the Acting Director General of the Federation, Mohammed bin Abd Rabbo Al-Yami, in which he stressed that holding the workshop on the sidelines of the “Kazan Forum”, which has become the most important platform for cooperation between Russia and the Islamic world, is an indicator of the priority of cooperation in the media field and its importance, whether in the agendas and programs of the forum, or in Russia’s vision for cooperation with the Islamic world.
He expressed his hope that this workshop will contribute to providing journalists in Member States with the skills they need to keep pace with the rapid technical transformations in the information space, praising the role of Sputnik in preparing for this workshop.
For his part, Director of International Cooperation at Sputnik News and Radio Vasily Pushkov explained that the workshop comes within the framework of effective cooperation between UNA and media institutions in Russia, led by Sputnik.
Mikhail Conrad, Director of Special Projects at Sputnik News and Radio Agency, reviewed the current reality of artificial intelligence and its uses in the field of media.
He also reviewed the main tools of artificial intelligence that newsrooms can benefit from, depending on the type of media material and whether it is text, video or audio material, indicating that some artificial intelligence algorithms shorten a lot of time and effort for journalists.
During the workshop, Conrad presented models of journalistic materials written entirely by artificial intelligence, noting that this type of journalistic material generated through artificial intelligence is often limited to sports news.
During the workshop, Conrad addressed the pros and cons of innovative solutions and open source software, and how to benefit from them.
He discussed the future of journalistic work in light of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, stressing that the human element will remain the most important in media production, and that the practical applications of artificial intelligence are the ones that will remain and last in journalistic work.
It is noteworthy that the workshop was also broadcast online to allow remote attendance for media professionals in the Member States.
This workshop is part of a series of media programs and courses that will be organized during the coming period in cooperation between UNA and Sputnik, within the framework of the fruitful partnership between the two sides and to achieve their goals and vision regarding training and qualification.
