
Realities: AI debates about goods and truth
MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN 2024 from October 23 to 25
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is creating new markets, synthetic world views, new opportunities and risks. Artificially generated realities are becoming a commodity and demand new concepts of truth. This became clear at more than a hundred individual events at the 38th MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN, whose motto this year was simply “Realities”. In the Serviceplan Group’s House of Communication, more than 300 speakers and over 5,000 participants sought answers to questions about AI aspects such as creativity and costs, responsibility and consequences, authenticity and ethics. For three days in Munich, the focus was also on politics, pluralism and participation, relevance, resilience and reforms. Whether lecture or discussion, workshop, presentation or masterclass: all events showed that AI as a fundamental technology is forcing our society and its media, journalism and PR to rethink truth and veracity, reality, economic efficiency and sustainability.
Artificial intelligence is a key topic
During the MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN, AI expert Henry Ajder warned of the dangers of synthetically generated media content, which could distort reality and destabilize our society. Bavaria’s Minister President Dr. Markus Söder warned that new communication technologies must be democratically regulated and should not be left to extreme social groups. At the same time, however, artificial intelligence also offers many opportunities: journalists can use AI for research, the film industry uses virtual characters, PR agencies are experimenting with automatically generated texts, advertising agencies are inspired by AI for storytelling and media companies evaluate user data to personalize content. The prerequisite for ensuring that AI does not destabilize our society is trust in its responsible use. In this context, transparency plays a key role in gaining credibility in times of deep fakes.
The 38th MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN was organized by Medien.Bayern GmbH, a subsidiary of the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM), and sponsored by the Bavarian State Chancellery and BLM. Dr. Thorsten Schmiege, President of BLM and Chairman of the shareholders’ meeting of Medien.Bayern GmbH, drew a positive balance: “Responsibility, diversity and trust: These three terms will continue to be central to the debate on the opportunities and risks of generative AI. Media companies see the opportunities as enormous. I experienced this spirit of optimism at MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN in an impressive way – as well as the commitment to taking responsibility.”
“Over the past three days, the media industry has proven that it has not only arrived in the age of AI, but is also taking advantage of the opportunities and potential of AI for a sustainable media world with an optimistic attitude,” says Stefan Sutor, Managing Director of Medien.Bayern GmbH. In view of the media turnaround, MEDIENTAGEN MÜNCHEN will continue to actively support and promote change in the coming years.
Conference topics, side events & speaker line-up
The extensive conference program of MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN offered events in the areas of politics & society, artificial intelligence, sustainability, Europe, TV & streaming, social media, journalism, publishing, audio, advertising & marketing, XR, diversity, equity & inclusion as well as education & recruiting. There were also numerous creative and communicative formats – including masterclasses, for example – from partners and sponsors. Numerous keynotes, case studies and insights were offered on six congress stages in the House of Communication. In addition to the MEDIENTAGE Summit, TV Summit, Audio Summit, Europe Day and Journalism Summit, the AI Summit took place for the second time. The main focus was on the transformation of existing revenue and structural models driven by AI and the ethical implications of dealing with generative AI. The congress was complemented by the career experience fair Media For You on the topic of jobs and training as well as numerous presentations by more than thirty exhibiting companies and organizations in the Expo area.
MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN events included the Night of the Media at BMW Welt in Munich, the presentation of the Blue Panther – TV & Streaming Award, the MTM Female Media Night, the “Female Talent in VFX, VP and Animation” meetup and the award ceremonies for the ARD/ZDF “Women + Media Technology” prize, the BLM Sustainability Award and the Hanns Seidel Foundation’s Political Influencer Award. The supporting program also included Riesenrad-Talks@MTM24, the Expo Party and the Speakers’ Dinner.
Key speakers and panelists at #MTM24 were: Bavaria’s Media Minister Dr. Florian Herrmann, Bavaria’s Minister of State for Digital Affairs Dr. Fabian Mehring, Bavaria’s Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich, EPP party and parliamentary group leader Manfred Weber, ARD Chairman and SWR Director General Prof. Dr. Kai Gniffke, BR Director General Dr. Katja Wildermuth, ARD Program Director Christine Strobl, mabb Director and DLM Chairwoman Dr. Eva Flecken, Burda Board Member Philipp Welte, SZ Publisher Dr. Oliver Friedmann, ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Bert Habets, the CEO Bert Habets, RTL programming director Inga Leschek, Netflix board member Katja Hofem, YouTube country director Andreas Briese, Meta manager Tino Krause, media scientist Prof. Dr. Bernhard Pörksen, futurologist Monika Bielskyte, analyst Evan Shapiro, AI expert Henry Ajder, Gapminder founder Anna Rosling Rönnlund, creamlabs founder Jacques Alomo, Studio Bummens founder Konstantin Seidenstücker, Correctiv editor-in-chief Justus von Daniels, journalists Natalie Amiri, Eva Schulz, Sophie von der Tann and Klaus Brinkbäumer as well as influencers and content creators Karo Kauer, Eva Schulz, Sophie von der Tann and Klaus Brinkbäumer. content creators Karo Kauer, Gazelle Vollhase and Fabian Grischkat.