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P5 at re:publica: Would you like to share a worry with us?  

It is not the typical opening question for researchers, but for Jonah Wermter and Antonia Eichenauer from the project “Journalism: Automating the News and journalistic Autonomy”, that was precisely how many interesting conversations began.  

At re:publica in Berlin, one of the largest and most important conferences on digital media, politics and society, they set up their AI suggestion box for concerns in and around journalism as part of the Off Stage programme. Visitors could write down their worries, fears and anger and leave them in the homemade box. 66 letters were written, some addressed to Sam Altman, many to journalism, some to decision-makers and one to God.  

The scientific artistic intervention was prompted by two observations drawn from the project’s research: Firstly, many journalists express concerns about their profession – both in terms of their jobs and the social function of journalism. However, these fears are often merely hinted at, weighed against the opportunities available, or framed within professional structures. Secondly, some journalists assume that their audience is critical of AI, and cite this as an important yardstick for their own work.  

To enrich these observations with unfiltered critical thoughts, Antonia and Jonah simply asked both groups directly: What causes you distress when you think about AI and journalism? They will now analyse the answers in due course and publish the results here in a further blog post. 

However, a few insights can already be shared: every year, re:publica attracts a community united by a critical perspective on current political, social and technological developments. Consequently, there is broad agreement in the criticism of major tech companies such as OpenAI or Meta. On the very first day, Karen Hao gave a keynote speech. She recently published a very detailed account of the exploitative conditions under which OpenAI’s AI models have been and are being developed.    

The professional backgrounds of the attendees, however, vary considerably. People come from journalism as well as the film industry; their platforms range from TikTok and Netflix to newspapers and the political arena. Naturally, many journalists made their way to the suggestion box, but so did mediators, consultants, PR strategists and social media managers.  

The issues that concern people vary accordingly. Some went so far as to complain that the suggestion box was overlooking the opportunities offered by AI, and said quite openly, “I’m not worried.” Of course, that is always nice to hear. For others, it seemed to be a welcome opportunity to finally vent their concerns about their (own) future and leave the event feeling somewhat lighter. As the current ARD Chairman and HR Director Florian Hager said in a talk: “What lies ahead for us [with AI] is a brutal disruption.”