Anadolu leads way: Training own AI, venturing into AI market

By Ahmet Furkan Mercan

President and CEO of Anadolu highlighted the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into news marketing strategies at the 52nd General Assembly and Conference of the Association of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).

Serdar Karagoz made his speech Thursday at OANA, organized by Kyodo News in Tokyo, saying that Anadolu is training its own artificial intelligence as an agency and is selling news, archives, and photos to the artificial intelligence market.

"As a matter of fact, without us, artificial intelligence, for example, ChatGPT, is nothing. It collects information, data, and archives and creates something. Our data, our archive, our photos, our news are the most important," he said.

Karagoz noted that ChatGPT currently has agreements with news agencies, and emphasized that Anadolu was training its own AI with news and data. "We are selling our news, archives, and photos to the artificial intelligence market," said Karagoz.

"We have to make this change; otherwise, artificial intelligence will threaten our business. If we change ourselves, artificial intelligence can turn into an opportunity for us," he added.

News agencies should find new ways to expand their services," said Hazal Duran, director of Strategic Communication and Brand Management at Anadolu, noting that the media industry is adversely affected by rising costs, declining advertising revenues, slow growth in subscription numbers and a sharp drop in referral traffic from social media sites.

Duran emphasized that with the increasing influence of AI exacerbating the situation, "news agencies should not only maintain their reputation as a reliable news source but also explore new avenues to expand their services."

Duran listed examples of the services in her presentation, including verification of information, syndication and licensing, data and analytics, consultancy services and network platforms.

- Collaboration agreement between Anadolu, IRNA

Following the discussions, the 52nd OANA Board meeting took place.

Afterward, a group photo of OANA members was taken.

During the board meeting, a collaboration agreement was signed between Anadolu and IRNA.

The agreement was signed by Karagoz and IRNA General Director Ali Naderi.