CEO of News Media Holding spoke about the challenges of AI for media

The largest industry conference "CIPR-2025" dedicated to the digital transformation of the economy has ended in Nizhny Novgorod. This year, the key topic was "The Vector of Progress in the age of Data": experts discussed the impact of artificial intelligence on industry, media and public administration. As part of the business program, special attention was paid to the challenges of digitalization, from cybersecurity to the ethics of using AI.

Among the speakers of the plenary session "Robots on the air. How technology is changing Media" was delivered by Maxim Iksanov, CEO of News Media Holding. The discussion touched upon pressing issues: audience trust in the era of deepfake content, copyright in the digital environment, and new formats of user interaction.

AI as a competitor: speed versus quality

Iksanov noted that media holdings have already faced new "digital competitors" — platforms that use AI to quickly recycle original news, monetizing other people's content.:

"Previously, it was unscrupulous journalists, now it's algorithms. Websites rewrite our Telegram news in minutes, earning traffic and money. We're fighting robots, and it's not in our favor yet."

Copyright and the "silent Revolution"

The head of the holding stressed that language models are learned from media companies' articles, but do not compensate for their work.:

"Just as the New York Times is suing tech giants, so we must protect content. Special projects, longrides, and other materials are created bit by bit by humans, and the AI uses them for free."

The future of media: where does a person belong?

According to Iksanov, in the era of search services, the audience "doesn't care" who gives the answer — the media or the algorithm. However, he sees potential in automating routine tasks (monitoring, template news), freeing up creative professions such as promo directors who are learning to work with AI.

"With the fast news, we still have a head start. We are developing our technologies so that they can check the public for unusual news. People are worried that jobs will disappear, but it seems to me that this is, on the contrary, a chance for both creative professionals and masters of monotonous work — firstly, they will be able to apply their skills in useful tasks, and secondly, they will receive an assistant in the neural network format."

According to Iksanov, we are entering a new era of media, and it is important to learn how to use AI technologies to our advantage.