The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has published a report that lays out how artificial intelligence (AI) could be used during the process of making and distributing television and radio content.
This as AI use cases are increasingly growing. According to research conducted by Gartner, smart machines will achieve mainstream adoption by 2021, with 30% of large companies using AI.
AI is also beginning to make substantial inroads into modern media production workflows, primarily by automating a range of repetitive tasks.
In SA, pay-TV giant MultiChoice recently partnered with the University of Pretoria to develop and sustain scarce AI and specifically machine learning technology skills in SA.
ITU is a specialised agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern ICT. It is the oldest among all the 15 specialised agencies.
The report discusses how AI is now being used to optimise workflows for broadcasting programme-making, to improve audio and visual quality evaluation, to efficiently utilise the frequency spectrum in television and radio distribution, and recently even to create new programmes by mining archives as well as automatically targeting content to specific audiences or individuals.
For example, ITU says AI is being used for extracting content from vast archives; automatically localising content for international distribution; and generating access services such as captioning, audio description, text-to-speech and signing far faster and far more accurately than could be achieved in the past.
The report, “Artificial intelligence systems for programme production and exchange”, reflects the work ITU has been doing on these issues, profiting from the experiences of programme-makers and broadcasters that are doing just that.
“ITU is collaborating with stakeholders to harness the power of AI to improve lives worldwide and seek solutions to the world’s greatest challenges,” says ITU secretary-general Houlin Zhao.
“This helps us to identify practical applications of AI that can accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
“There is still an incredible amount of work needed to ensure the use of AI in programme-making and content distribution is for the benefit of the audiences,” says Mario Maniewicz, director of ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau.
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