Prestigious award presented in Naples
Vienna (OTS) – The ORF has won the European Technology and Innovation Award from the European Broadcast Union (EBU), an association of 68 broadcasters, with its self-developed AI software “AiDitor”. The innovative software supports journalists in radio, TV and online editorial departments in their work. The ORF is taking on a pioneering role in the field of innovation throughout Europe. The EBU’s “Technology & Innovation Award” was presented for the ninth time on June 13, 2024 in Naples. Dr. Harald Kräuter, Director of Technology and Digitalization at ORF, accepted the prestigious award.
The award honors outstanding technical solutions from media companies. The ORF was able to convince the international jury of experts with the AI prototype AiDitor, who justified the award by saying that it is the first AI tool that can be easily implemented in practice.
The AiDitor creates additional formats and suggestions in a matter of seconds based on links or researched content: online stories, TV and radio texts, teletext articles, social media postings or headlines. The tool can also transcribe texts, recognize and extract quotes itself, and translate them into more than 40 languages, making the often time-consuming work process much easier. The audio quality of recordings can also be improved with the AiDitor. The software is constantly being expanded with new functions, using GPT models from the OpenAI universe, Azure AI Services, Anthropic Claude and Mistral.
“As a medium with a wide reach, the ORF is of course also an innovative technology company. With the AiDitor we are setting new standards for editorial and journalistic work in the field of artificial intelligence. This award confirms our innovative strength at the European level and our claim to be one of the technological pioneers internationally,” says Harald Kräuter, ORF Director for Technology and Digitalization. “It is particularly important to us that people are always at the center of journalistic work; artificial intelligence can and should help to make everyday life in the editorial offices more efficient, so that there is more time for investigative stories, background research and fact checks,” so herbs continue.
The EBU’s Director of Technology and Innovation, Antonio Arcidiacono, congratulates: “The ORF has distinguished itself through its innovative strength. The award is a testament to its ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality content through cutting-edge technologies. The EBU Technology & Innovation Award is recognition and inspiration for broadcasters across Europe. Congratulations to Harald Kräuter and the entire ORF team for this well-deserved honor.”
“Today’s award shows that we are on the right track and that small teams can achieve big things,” says Stefan Kollinger, Chief Innovation Officer in the ORF Directorate for Technology and Digitalization. He is driving forward AI initiatives at the ORF and already has new projects in the pipeline: “We are currently working on concepts on how we can make the public content online available to our audience in an even better and more up-to-date manner in the future and make it discoverable so that we can “The field should not be left solely to the global tech giants,” said Kollinger. With the development of the AiDitor, it was possible to gain relevant experience and build up skills.
“The prototype is developed in close contact with the editorial teams based on real use cases, and the journalists’ feedback is continuously incorporated into the product. From my time as an editor, I know and understand the needs of my colleagues very well. This allows me to optimally translate your wishes into technical requirements,” says AiDitor inventor and innovation manager Marco Mursteiner.
The AiDitor is also generating great interest internationally. There is already a cooperation with Bayerischer Rundfunk to share experiences and learnings. The ORF is already in negotiations with other media companies.