Ekstra Bladet – JP/Politikens Hus

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Ekstra Bladet – JP/Politikens Hus

Patent overview within AI helps Ekstra Bladet in JP/Politikens Hus on its way in unknown waters.

When Ekstra Bladet in collaboration with several Danish universities develops new technology for the news media of the future, it is completely new in the Danish media industry. Accordingly, an effective and thorough patent landscape analysis in collaboration with Kanved Patent Consulting has been crucial for them to be able to move forward with the project.

The project "Platform Intelligence in News" will revolutionize Danish media. In collaboration with the universities DTU, KU and CBS and with support from Innovation Fund Denmark, Ekstra Bladet has started to develop AI systems that can understand the content of news articles and recommend articles to the news media. Kasper Lindskow, Head of Research and Innovation at Ekstra Bladet, is the project manager on the project.

- Our project will be something completely new on the scene for Danish news media. There are quite a few systems already, but they are surprisingly poorly adapted to the context of news media. The challenge is i.a. to create systems that can handle the wild speed in a leading Danish news media like Ekstra Bladet, which publishes up to 350 articles a day, says Kasper Lindskow.

Accordingly, Ekstra Bladet needed to cover the patent landscape in the area of AI before the team could proceed with the project. This is not an area in which the media company usually moves.

- A lot of development is going on in the technology areas of AI that we are active in. Both universities and the big tech giants like Google are active. We got this confirmed by the landscape survey that Kanved did for us. But it also showed that the specific areas that we want to cover are something new. There are points of attention, but not something that should limit our efforts at the moment, says Kasper Lindskow.

Specifically, the systems that the team is developing will be used to automatically understand the content of news articles and recommend articles to readers, and it is based on the technologies Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), both of which are very new in the media industry.

Patent application on the basis of value compass

- In addition to the technology working as planned and being suitable for news media, it is very important to us that the system is adapted to the values we have as a leading news media. That is why we have developed a value compass, which we must steer by in the development of the system, Kasper Lindskow explains.

The value compass, which has been developed in collaboration with researchers at Copenhagen Business School, has four directions that must fit into the project; The basic journalistic values, the technical values, the economic and of course the ethics within AI, which continue to fill much of the debate within that particular technology.

- We try i.a. to push the boundaries of how to understand why the system recommends what it recommends. And it is value-motivated. We believe that transparency, as an integral part of journalism, is important, but it is also a general AI ethical value about transparency and explainability. And we have also looked at those values in collaboration with Kanved in the market overview.

"Business-wise, Kanved has helped us understand that we are moving in a direction that does not appear to involve any major dangers, but that there are various points of attention we need to keep in mind as we move forward. It has been important for the project."

Kasper Lindskow, Head of Research and Innovation at Ekstra Bladet

Central with external expertise in the patent area

The competitive area looks a bit variegated for the specific project, because Ekstra Bladet moves within an area where no Danish media companies have ever been before. But with this project, the competitors are largely outside the Danish borders and are to a greater extent technology companies. Therefore, the overview of the patent landscape has been important.

- As a company, we move into unknown waters when we choose to prioritize technology in this area. Content-producing media companies are very rarely also technology companies. Therefore, as a company or industry, we are not used to navigating in the development of technology and not at all in the area of AI. Potentially, it can become very important and central, so we want to be closer to the development of it, says Kasper Lindskow.

- It has been important for us to look at patents built in Denmark, because JP Politikens Hus is primarily a Danish media house. Therefore, it has been a matter of finding the patents that foreign companies have taken out in Denmark. This is the market we are looking at.

Huge investments require security

This is a large project with many parties involved. Not least Innovation Fund Denmark, which has financed a large part of the project, which runs up to a total of DKK 20 million. Therefore, it is important that the project can actually be launched, which is why the initial landscape studies have been central.

One of Kasper Lindskow's concerns has e.g. been that other companies could have developed something similar and then suddenly would charge money or be able to block the use of the technology. But with Kanved Patent Consulting's work, they have found that they can move forward with the development.

"Business-wise, Kanved has helped us understand that we are moving in a direction that does not appear to involve any major dangers, but that there are various points of attention we need to keep in mind as we move forward. It has been important for the project."

WHY DID JP HOUSE OF POLITICS CHOOSE US?

Kasper Lindskow, Head of Research and Innovation at Ekstra Bladet, gives you an overview of why he and JP Politikens Hus have chosen to collaborate with Kanved Patent Consulting.