New initiative in research in the growing field of Media AI

WARA Media, a new arena for research in Media AI, is now being started. The initiative is led by Johanna Björklund, associate professor at Umeå University.

ImageJon Hollström

The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) research programme is a comprehensive national initiative for strategically motivated basic research, education, and academic recruitment. Collaboration with the surrounding society takes place, among other things, through the thematic research arenas WASP Research Arenas (WARA). WARA Media, a new arena for research in Media AI, is now being started.

It is motivated by an ongoing trend where automatic analysis of combined media, such as text, image, and sound, is becoming increasingly important in many industries. The arena is led by Johanna Björklund, associate professor at Umeå University and co-founder of the media companies Codemill AB and Adlede AB. For Björklund, the arena represents a new chapter for Swedish media technology:

“We are entering a time when all companies, in one way or another, must relate to the media, for example in digital meetings, in external communication, in process control, or in the development of future products. Through WARA Media, we can create new relationships at the individual level that transcend existing industries, and establish long-term collaborations between academia and industry” she says.

The purpose of the arena is to promote world-leading research in Media AI, and to increase the utilization rate of scientific discoveries. Key players are Spotify, Schibsted, Bonnier News, Ericsson, ABB and the WASP universities KTH, Lund University, Umeå University, Linköping University, and Chalmers. By participating in the arena, companies can collaborate with top international researchers and new talents from WASP's graduate school. The researchers, in turn, get the opportunity to use unique test environments and data sets, and get in touch with industrial expertise in various application areas.

“New media constitute a new research front with repercussions on both industry and society at large. The questions include analysis of the media's content and form, how the media is used and appreciated by its listeners and readers and what social effects the media has. As one of the largest research organizations in media technology and artificial intelligence, Spotify looks forward to WASP addressing issues such as these” says Jussi Karlgren, researcher in language technology at Spotify and one of the initiators of the arena.

Researchers are also very interested in language. Jens Edlund, senior lecturer at the Department of Intelligent Systems, the division for speech, music and hearing at KTH and director of the national research infrastructure Språkbanken Tal, believes that speaking people almost always play a central role in combined media:

“To create an automatic understanding of combined media, it is not enough to analyze transcripts of what is said. Human behaviors and conversations are difficult to understand without a connection between where, how, when, to whom and by whom. Capturing this is a major challenge that requires a concerted approach” he says.

WARA Media is the fourth research arena within WASP. The arenas Public Safety, Software and Common already exist, the latter being the arena name for Ericsson Research's data center in Lund. Two more research arenas are in the starting blocks. Collaboration between industry and academia gives researchers the opportunity to test and develop their research under real conditions. It strengthens research results and shortens the path to concrete applications.

Read more about WASP research arenas

Read more about WARA Media