Kasper Lindskow: Building a Scalable AI Infrastructure at Denmark's JP/Politikens Media Group
Mar 18, 2025
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Kasper Lindskow, Head of AI at JP/Politikens Media Group, leads innovative AI initiatives in journalism. He discusses the challenges of scaling AI in newsrooms and the importance of a robust infrastructure. Key highlights include the Platform Intelligence in News project and the Magna AI suite, designed to adapt to different publications. Kasper also shares insights on maintaining journalistic integrity through the 'Values Compass' and training journalists to effectively use AI tools, ensuring their successful integration into daily workflows.
Kasper Lindskow emphasizes the importance of a robust infrastructure for AI in journalism, differentiating transformative projects from those that fail.
The Magna AI suite personalizes tools for journalists, adapting to each publication's voice while facilitating tasks like research and article drafting.
The 'Values Compass' framework guides the ethical implementation of AI, ensuring alignment with journalistic integrity and preventing sensationalism.
Deep dives
The Integration of AI in Journalism
The journey toward integrating artificial intelligence in journalism began at the JP Politiken Media Group in 2019, motivated by the realization that AI technology was rapidly maturing. Initially, the focus was on applied research in areas deemed relevant for the near future, such as recommender systems and language models. Collaborations with universities and funding from state-owned innovation agencies played a significant role in shaping these efforts, leading to the establishment of the Platform Intelligence News Project (PIN Project). This comprehensive initiative laid the groundwork for future applications of AI in generating trustworthy news content and optimizing workflows.
The Development of Magna: AI Tools for Journalists
Magna, an AI-powered editorial assistant, emerged from the PIN Project as a dual-purpose platform that not only serves as a hub for deploying generative AI but also provides tailored tools for journalists. The platform includes easy-to-use chat options similar to language models like ChatGPT, along with specifically designed tools that facilitate tasks such as research and drafting articles. Its adaptability allows for customization according to different news brands, ensuring that the generated content aligns with the unique voice and reporting style of each publication. As journalists engage with Magna, they can benefit from automated assistance while maintaining editorial integrity.
Ethics and Values in AI Implementation
A critical aspect of the PIN Project was the establishment of a values compass designed to guide the ethical implementation of AI in journalism. This framework required stakeholders to define the overall mission and balance various considerations, including journalistic integrity, technical feasibility, and business viability. Specific measures were put in place to prevent the AI from endorsing content that could compromise editorial standards, such as favoring sensationalism or over-representation of certain topics. By adhering to these established guidelines, the media group aimed to cultivate a trustworthy relationship between technology and news reporting.
Challenges in Personalized News Recommendations
Creating effective recommender systems for news presents inherent challenges, particularly in terms of maintaining journalistic integrity while also maximizing user engagement. The distinction between content-based and collaborative filtering approaches demonstrates how different algorithmic strategies can influence the news flow and diverse content exposure to readers. The media group sought to optimize these systems to balance popular and niche stories while ensuring that algorithms do not inadvertently promote content that contradicts the organization's values. Continuous monitoring and evaluation were necessary to ensure that these systems operated in alignment with their ethical standards and audience expectations.
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI and Journalism
The rapid evolution of AI technologies holds transformative potential for journalism, with both opportunities and challenges anticipated in the coming years. The media group's experiments with generative AI and recommender systems lay the foundation for ambitious future applications, enabling more profound engagement with audiences. As agents and advanced tools develop further, the goal is to harness these technologies for improved news discovery and user interaction. However, careful consideration is essential to navigate competitive market dynamics and to ensure that AI implementations are truly aligned with journalistic values and practices.
When it comes to AI adoption, experimentation is easy—scaling is hard. So, what is the difference between AI projects that fade out and those that transform newsrooms? A strong infrastructure.
In this episode of Newsroom Robots, Kasper Lindskow, the head of AI at JP/Politikens Media Group joins host Nikita Roy. Kasper shares how as one of Denmark's largest media groups they are building a scalable AI infrastructure across multiple news brands, balancing technical innovation with editorial values.
Key topics include:
The Platform Intelligence in News (PIN) Project — their comprehensive research initiative that brought together technical universities and social science departments
Magna — their flagship AI suite that adapts to each publication's unique voice and offers tools from basic writing assistance to complex research capabilities
How JP/Politikens evolved from a single-newsroom AI team to a centralized unit with "local AI hubs" at each publication
The "Values Compass" framework that ensures AI systems align with journalistic integrity
How they customized AI tools for different publications and integrated them into daily newsroom workflows
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