ALGEPI workshop in Namur

ALGEPI (understanding ALGorithmic gatekeepers to promote EPIstemic welfare) is a 4-year interdisciplinary research project funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), planned to run in 2023-2027.

For their second annual workshop, the theme was AI to the Future: User-Centric Innovation and Media Regulation. Participants included industry professionals as well as members of academia. One presentation explored the ways in which AI is implemented at VRT, the Flemish public broadcaster, and another presented new methods developed by Spideo for recommending content. A session on regulation dealt with the measure of so-called filter bubbles and presented a breakdown of the AI Act’s impact on media organisations. I had the opportunity to do a live presentation of our own Vignette dashboard, showing the similarities and differences in homepage design and prominence strategies for the three VOD market leaders in France (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+). The day ended with updates on current research projects being carried out at ALGEPI. A wide-ranging user survey on perceptions of recommender systems showed promising results and a literature review on news recommender systems revealed regional differences in how this topic is addressed in research papers.

I would like to thank Heritiana Ranaivoson and Bruno Dumas for organising this event and for their invitation and warm welcome.