AI hackathon in Vienna: Revolutionary solutions for news archives!
AI hackathon in Vienna: Revolutionary solutions for news archives!
Last Saturday, March 22, 2025, a remarkable hackathon with the motto "Put News Archives to Life" took place in the Media Innovation Lab of the Wiener Zeitung media group. This event was organized in cooperation with the AI Impact Mission (AIM) and the Austrian Startup Summit and attracted a total of 24 participants who merged in eight teams and two individuals. The aim of the hackathon was to develop innovative AI solutions for the use of historical news archives using Large Language Models (LLMS) in order to promote democratic discourse and create new, personalized news formats. Participants had access to over 87,000 articles from the archive of the Wiener Zeitung, which range from 1998 to 2023.
The challenges were the semantic classification of biased and non-biased news as well as the implementation of fact checks to ensure the quality of information. The teams continued to process relevant topics such as information mapping for investigative research. Particularly noteworthy are the best three teams in the hackathon: "Nexus Group Ai", "The Pollis" and "Venom Boys", who now have the opportunity to present their solutions on April 1 at the Austrian Startup Summit. For the best ideas, cash prizes were advertised between 500 and 1,500 euros, with the winning team gaining a stand at the Austrian Startup Summit 2026 and access to investors. A jury of experts who were composed of experts from different areas evaluated the submitted solutions.artificial intelligence in journalism
The events of the hackathon reflect a broader movement in which artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly influences journalism. Technologies that are developed to support journalistic activity prove to be the key to automating repetitative tasks and the fast analysis of extensive data. These are some of the advantages that AI-based journalism brings. Several applications enable the creation of personalized content and thus contribute to increasing the reader loyalty.
However, the use of AI also harbors challenges. These range from the risk of spreading misinformation to the need for careful quality control of the AI generated content. In particular, the integration of technology and media for the benefit of the democratic discourse is a central concern. Artificial intelligence can also help to carry out more precise data analyzes and create innovative content such as interactive graphics.
opportunities and risks
The opportunities created by AI in journalism are considerable. Automation of routine tasks improves efficiency, while personalized content is based on user data and thus become more relevant to the reader. Despite this progress, there is a risk of bias and discrimination against biased data that can endanger the independence of journalism. In addition, data protection concerns and ethical questions about the responsibility in the distribution of misinformation represent significant challenges.
In summary, it can be said that the integration of AI into journalism both has the potential to revolutionize it as well as diverse risks that have to be carefully evaluated. The Hackathon of the Wiener Zeitung media group is an important step in order to further explore the interactions between technology and journalism and to develop sustainable solutions. Further developments in this area are to be expected, in particular through progress in language processing and analysis of user data.for detailed information about the hackathon and the projects presented is on the reporting of OTS , while for a deeper insight into the influence of artificial intelligence Journalism ki-echo offers a valuable source. Further scientific analyzes about current developments and challenges in AI usage can be found in the publication of Nature .
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| Ort | Wien, Österreich |
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