Shaping the narrative
2024 is a ‘mega election’ year with over 60 countries – half of the world’s population – expected to go to the polls. This coincides with the breakout of generative AI, a tool that is already being deployed to ‘shape the narrative’ of campaigns and events. It is the training of the models on which generative AI is based that is discussed in an article by Elisa Giomi in this issue of Intermedia. She describes the ‘unacknowledged revolution’ in the media and creative industries, warns against the ‘moral panic’ seen in previous media upheavals and argues that paid-for news organisations do not have a monopoly on accuracy.
Elsewhere Val Jervis, Tim Miller and Richard Rudd lament the ‘worst of all worlds’ result that emerged from WRC-23 on the allocation of the crucial 6 GHz band. And 100 years on from the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Andrea Millwood Hargrave interviews Sonia Livingstone, one of the architects of General comment No 25, the amendment to the UN convention which extends children’s rights into the digital space. In our Q&A this quarter Vivek Sood of Axiata argues passionately in favour of a better investment environment for telcos and at the same time offers a shrewd insight into the difference between coffee and tea drinking.
Finally, I have attended many IIC events over recent years and seen at first hand how valuable they are in promoting international policy dialogue. It’s a special pleasure, therefore, to be able to contribute to the institute now as its president. I look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones over the coming months.
