Evaluation of norwegian language models: language and law
2025-11-18 12:15 - 13:15 (Europe/Oslo) | Spiserommet, Domus Academica, Oslo
In this seminar, Lilja Øvrelid and Hans Christian Farsethås will give an overview of Norwegian language models and how they are evaluated. They will outline the main features of current evaluation methodology, review existing Norwegian evaluations, and highlight where new approaches are needed—particularly in specialist domains such as law.
Lilja Øvrelid, WP5 leader in MediaFutures, is a Professor at the Department of Informatics (University of Oslo) and leads the Language Technology Group (LTG). She is also a co-leader in Integreat.
Hans Christian Farsethås is a researcher at the Department of Public and International Law (University of Oslo) and part of the Digital Welfare State project.
This seminar is organized by the Research Group on Law & Technology (JOT) and the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (SERI).The event will take place in Oslo and will be held in Norwegian only.

UiB AI #17 Open Artificial Intelligence
2025-12-04 10:00 - 12:00
This UiB AI seminar is organized by the Faculty of Law and raises the question: Can AI models be open in the same way as open-source software, and should they be?
Open artificial intelligence refers to AI systems whose underlying programs and infrastructure, training data, model architecture, and model weights are wholly or partly openly available, allowing anyone to study, modify, and redistribute them. Large models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini offer access to their models, but this access is limited to using the model. Other actors, such as Meta’s Llama and the Chinese model DeepSeek, present themselves as open, but in reality provide only access to model weights and the ability to run the model locally. Their use is also subject to license terms that restrict both further distribution and commercial use.
But what does it actually mean for an AI model to be open? Can there be limitations on the use of open AI models? And should such models really be open, given that openness may also make misuse easier?
The seminar will be streamed and recorded and given in Norwegian.
PROGRAM:
10:00 Coffee/tea and mingling
10:15–11:30 Presentations

Torger Kielland, Professor at the Faculty of Law

Pål Grønås Drange, Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology

11:30 Light lunch and mingling

News experience: Understanding why and how audiences interact with news beyond audience metrics
2025-12-09 09:15 - 14:30 | Ulrike Pihls Hus, Ulrikes aula, Professor Keysers gate 1, Bergen, Norway
We are pleased to invite you to the trial lecture and public defence of Marianne Borchgrevink-Brækhus, PhD candidate at SFI MediaFutures.
Date: 9 DecemberVenue: Ulrikes Aula, Ulrike Pihls hus
Time: The trial lecture starts at 09:15 and the defense begins at 10:30.
PhD Thesis:News experience: Understanding why and how audiences interact with news beyond audience metrics
Thesis Summary:
This thesis explores how we can understand news use as experience. While audiences have become increasingly central to professional journalism and journalism studies, understandings of audience practices and behaviors are predominantly shaped by digital trace data. Yet, despite this growing attention to audiences, news practitioners and scholars continue to talk more about audiences than with them. As a result, our knowledge about people’s interactions with news, and what these practices actually mean, remains limited. Against this backdrop, I approach news use as experience. I ask how we can further a more nuanced understanding of why and how audiences use news, starting from the vantage point of the audience.
To address these questions, I employ a multi-method research design, combining recurring interviews and media diaries, supplemented with video-ethnography and data donations. Drawing on the empirical insights provided by this multi-method approach, I refine the concept of news experience, emphasizing the importance of contextualizing understandings of news use within people’s everyday lives. By studying news use from an audience-centric perspective – bridging traditional qualitative methods with innovative digital ethnographic approaches across different media formats and platforms – I identify different experiences with news that both shape people’s practices and behaviors.
The empirical material is analyzed through four articles. The first article explores why young adults are reluctant to subscribe to digital news. I do this by analyzing experiences of young non-subscribers. The article provides insights into their considerations of why they do not subscribe as well as how they maneuver around paid news content. The second article offers a conceptualization of media experience, demonstrating how this concept is well-attuned to grasp the ingrained position and meaning media hold in people’s lives. Applying conceptual principles from the second article, the third article refines news experience as an analytical lens to understanding why and how people interact with news in everyday life, empirically grounded in six distinct forms of experience shaping people’s practices. Finally, the fourth article critically assesses the metric of “time spent” by analyzing how people navigate when reading news online, and how short digital news practices relate to meaningful experiences with news.
By talking with people instead of about them, this thesis critically assesses longstanding assumptions and misconceptions about audiences and their (digital) behaviors at a time when VI audience metrics have become integral to professional journalism and journalism studies. While I situate my research in relation to the audience turn in journalism research, this thesis contributes to the existing literature by detailing methodological and epistemological implications of studying news use as experience. In doing so, my research recognizes the lived, contextual dimensions of everyday life that ultimately give shape and meaning to people’s news practices: it demonstrates how audiences’ behaviors are formed not merely by perceptions of the news content itself, but also by embodied, material, and technological dimensions; the spatial, temporal, and social contexts in which it unfolds; and by their identities and previous knowledge. As such, the thesis explicates how news use can result from conscious and explicit, as well as unconscious and tacit practices and behaviors. I therefore argue that digital trace data – although relevant for identifying patterns and trends – cannot be applied as proxies for people’s interests or preferences. These insights are not only relevant from a societal perspective and to the field of journalism studies to inform more balanced assessments of news use in digital societies, but also in professional terms as media organizations justify their policies and financial investments on the basis of such metrics.
Opponents:

Professor Jannie Møller Hartley, The Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University
Professor Marcel Broersma, Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen

Leader of committee:
Professor Dag Elgesem, Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen.
Chair of the defense:
Professor Leif Ove Larsen, Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen.

Research on Norwegian Open Large Language Models at UiO
2025-12-11 09:15 - 11:45 | Seminar room Logo 2438, UiO
The Language Technology Group (LTG) at the Department of Informatics, including the leaders of MediaFutures work package 5, hosts a seminar on open large language models for the languages of Norway, with emphasis on ongoing experimentation at LTG with end-to-end model training and evaluation, as well as the introduction of an experimental chatbot prototype.
Large language models (LLMs) are the main engine under the hood of what is often called “generative AI”. For many, it may look as if they emerged out of the blue, and they are mostly associated with commercial blackbox services run by BigTech companies, with trade secrets locked behind armored gates.
But in fact LLMs originally come from research labs and models and training data used to be open: in the same sense as open source software and open science. And nowadays, open LLMs again show signs of catching up in performance with their closed proprietary counterparts, including for languages other than English.
Through the seminar, LTG will present research on open and transparent LLMs conducted at UiO. We will reflect on experiences in adaptation to Norwegian and Sámi, limitations in training and evaluation data, pre-training and fine-tuning of open models, and open methodological questions. For this work, LTG also provides a chatbot prototype, based on our most recent Norwegian model NorMistral-11B.
In addition to presentations by LTG researchers, the Norwegian Language Council will review their findings comparing open and closed LLMs with regards to their Norwegian language skills, and the National Library will present on LLM training data for research in Norway.
Everyone is welcome!
Registration
To help us plan for the event, we ask that prospective participants register on-line.
Program
Coffee is served from 09:15. Moderator: Yves Scherrer (LTG).
9:30 – 9:40 Welcome and introduction (Lilja Øvrelid, LTG)
9:40 – 9:55 The importance of openness in the era of generative AI (Andrey Kutuzov, LTG)
9:55 – 10:05 Web-derived LLM training data for Norwegian (Stephan Oepen, LTG)
10:05 – 10:15 Training data for Norwegian LLM research (National Library of Norway)
10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 10:50 Developing NorMistral-11B, with chat interface demonstration (David Samuel, LTG)
10:50 – 11:05 NorEval: Native Benchmarking for Norwegian LLMs (Vladislav Mikhailov, LTG)
11:05 – 11:25 The language quality of the Norwegian output in language models. Test results from the Language Council (Kristine Eide, Language Council of Norway)
11:25 – 11:45 Outlook, Q&A (Erik Velldal, LTG)

Popularity Bias in Recommender Systems​
2025-12-15 09:15 - 14:00 | Ulrike Pihls Hus, Ulrikes aula, Professor Keysers gate 1, Bergen, Norway
We are pleased to invite you to the trial lecture and public defence of Anastasiia Klimashevskaia, PhD candidate at SFI MediaFutures.
Date: 15 December Venue: Ulrikes Aula, University of Bergen
Time: To be confirmed
PhD Thesis:Beyond Popularity: Investigating and Mitigating Bias in Recommender Systems
Thesis Summary:Recommender systems are powerful tools shaping what users see and engage with online. However, they often suffer from popularity bias, where already popular items are disproportionately promoted while niche content remains underrepresented. This bias reduces diversity, user satisfaction, and fairness across platforms.
In her doctoral work, Anastasiia Klimashevskaia examines the causes and effects of popularity bias through a comprehensive literature review, explores debiasing strategies using real-world datasets, and evaluates their performance in an online A/B test within a live recommender system.
Her research further investigates how popularity bias interacts with other algorithmic biases and proposes novel mitigation strategies based on alternative theoretical frameworks. The findings shed light on the trade-offs between fairness, diversity, and recommendation quality—contributing to the creation of more equitable recommender systems.
All are warmly welcome to attend and take part in celebrating Anastasiia’s important milestone.

Winter School at the Northern Lights Deep Learning (NLDL) Conference
2026-01-05 08:00 - 2026-01-09 17:00 | UiT Campus
MediaFutures associate professor Samia Touileb will be speaker at the Winter School at the Northern Lights Deep Learning (NLDL) Conference 2026!
The NLDL Winter School consists of tutorials by experts in the field and is co-hosted by NORA as part of the NORA Research School.
For registration, please use https://www.nldl.org/attend/registration
Getting formal ECTS Credits: UiT The Arctic University of Norway will award 5 ECTS for the Winter School to students who register formally for the course (the number of spots is limited to 40 students).

To register for the 5 ECTS credits use the following link: https://en.uit.no/admission#kapittel_735916

The course description and the course code are available at: https://uit.no/utdanning/emner/emne/862218/fys-8603

Please note that the application deadline is 15 November, which means that you will receive a confirmation of admission a week after the deadline, i.e., 25 November.

For credits, the participants are required to present an ongoing research project (poster presentation) as part of the winter school and complete a home exam afterward. For students early in their PhD without an ongoing research project can present their PhD research objective and future project as a poster.

Note that the poster presentation is part of the NLDL Winter School and not part of the NLDL proceedings. The posters should be in A0 Portrait format.

Posters can be printed locally via Xtenso. If you want to use this service, the poster should be sent to mette@xtenso.no by 20th December. The cost for poster printing is 750 NOK.

Touilebs research focuses on alignment, bias and fairness in NLP, information extraction, summarization, and the application of NLP and machine learning in social science contexts. Her tutorial will address the main sources of bias in NLP systems, existing frameworks for fairness, safety concerns, and current debates about alignment:
Tutorial 4: Ethical challenges in NLP
While AI systems have shown remarkable progress in recent years they raise various ethical challenges. In this tutorial, we will explore this ethical dimension with a particular focus on bias, fairness, and alignment in Natural Language Processing (NLP). The tutorial will combine theoretical discussions with practical examples. We will discuss the main sources of bias in NLP systems, existing frameworks for fairness, safety concerns, and current debates about alignment. We will have a practical, hands-on, session to demonstrate how bias and other safety concerns manifest in modern NLP models, and how to critically evaluate them and reduce them.

Bridging AI and Behavior Change (ABC)
2026-01-20 08:00 - 2026-01-21 17:00 | Singapore
MediaFutures director professor Christoph Trattner together with an international team organises a bridge event at the world leading AI conference AAAI in Singapore next January. Read how you can submit a paper below.
The event Bridging AI and Behavior Change (ABC) brings together the AI and behavioral science communities to address the urgent need for responsible, explainable, and effective behavior-aware technologies. With the rapid rise of LLM, generative AI, reinforcement learning, and agentic systems capable of shaping human decisions, this bridge aims to establish common ground between technical innovation and behavioral science theories of decision-making, nudging, and motivation. Their objective is to catalyze sustained collaboration across AI, psychology, behavioral economics, digital health, sustainability, and public policy, enabling the design of ethical and transparent interventions for health, well-being, sustainability, and civic engagement.
Key themes include:

personalization vs. public interest
boundaries of responsible nudging
intervention design and adaptive/optimal treatment assignment
evaluation frameworks for long-term behavior change, habit formation, and mental health/wellness
bias and equity in algorithmic decision-making
ethics, transparency, and compliance with emerging regulations (e.g., EU AI Act)
cross-domain applications in health, sustainability, education, social media interventions, and civic participation
reinforcement learning for efficient exploration
psychological science foundations
and the development of shared protocols, datasets, recommender systems, and explanation frameworks for trustworthy, behavior-aware AI.

The ABC Bridge is a 1-day in-person program combining education, collaboration, and outreach:

Education (Morning): Tutorials introducing behavioral science for AI researchers and AI methods for behavioral scientists; a hands-on case lab on AI-driven nudging.
Collaboration (Afternoon): Paper and poster presentations; debate on “Can AI nudge responsibly without manipulation?”; breakout groups co-developing draft Responsible Nudging Guidelines.
Outreach (Closing): A plenary summary panel and a motivational talk at the AAAI main conference to communicate the Bridge’s vision and recommendations to the broader AI community.

We anticipate 30–50 participants, including AI/ML researchers, behavioral scientists, ethicists, HCI scholars, public health experts, and early-career researchers.
Submission requirements
We invite Short (2–4 pages), Long (4–8 pages), Vision (4–6 pages), Position (2–4 pages), and Demo (2–4 pages) papers or extended abstracts highlighting interdisciplinary research, position statements, or case studies relevant to responsible AI and behavior change. Submissions will be reviewed by the bridge committee.
Submission site information https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=aaai2026abc
Bridge Chair

Mehrdad Rostami, University of Oulu, Finland – mehrdad.rostami@oulu.fi ·
Christoph Trattner (University of Bergen, Norway) – christoph.trattner@uib.no ·
Alexander Felfernig (Graz University of Technology, Austria) – alexander.felfernig@tugraz.at ·
Michael Sobolev (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center / USC, USA) – msobolev@usc.edu ·
Mourad Oussalah (University of Oulu, Finland) – mourad.oussalah@oulu.fi

Adhera Health Seminar: AI as Family Media for Health and Wellbeing: Personalization, Context, and Biopsychosocial Perspectives
2026-01-21 12:00 - 13:00 | MediaFutures, Media Futures HQ, 3rd floor, Bergen, 5008
MediaFutures invites to Adhera Health’s seminar on AI as family media for health and wellbeing.
Adhera Health is a digital health company that creates AI-powered, personalized support platforms and programs to empower families and caregivers managing pediatric chronic conditions, improve treatment adherence and wellbeing, and enhance health outcomes through evidence-based digital interventions.
AI as Family Media for Health and Wellbeing: Personalization, Context, and Biopsychosocial Perspectives

Abstract
Families today must navigate a complex landscape of health and wellbeing information, often facing waves of misinformation and conflicting guidance. Artificial intelligence can act as a media and communication technology that supports families in interpreting information, building trust, and making informed decisions, while respecting individual and family-level differences.
Modern personalized health communication increasingly relies on context-aware systems that adapt content to family routines, beliefs, and emotional dynamics. Such systems must carefully balance challenges including reducing stigma, respecting the autonomy of different family members, and delivering sensitive content that addresses diverse needs and perspectives. These systems integrate clinical data, psychosocial factors, and personal preferences to generate adaptive, multimodal educational materials, behavioral guidance, and emotional support.
A biopsychosocial perspective is central, recognizing that effective AI-mediated interventions consider biological, psychological, and social dimensions of health. Pediatrics represents a prime testing ground for these approaches, given the need for sensitive, high-stakes communication and the limited research on AI-mediated personalized family support in this context.
Drawing on ongoing research with Adhera Health (USA and Spain) and the University of Bergen, we present examples of AI-mediated communication that complement human care, helping families navigate complex health information responsibly, foster trust, and support wellbeing in ethically and emotionally informed ways.
Speaker bio
Luis Fernández-Luque is Chief Scientific Officer at Adhera Health, where he leads R&D activities in Spain and the USA, including projects funded by the European Commission and NIH, as well as partnerships with healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies across Europe and the United States.
Since 2006, Luis has conducted pioneering research in mobile health, wearable devices, and AI-driven health applications, including deep learning and health recommender systems. His work sits at the intersection of computer science and behavioral change, combining human factors research with AI to deliver personalized, trustworthy, and effective digital health interventions. He has led and contributed to international research projects on diabetes and obesity in adult and pediatric populations across Europe, North America, and Asia. He earned his PhD at the University of Tromsø, exploring strategies to identify trustworthy content for people with chronic conditions, and collaborated during his PhD with GroupLens (University of Minnesota), the CDC, and Microsoft Research.
Luis has extensive experience in research management, including serving as PI and co-PI on large-scale projects and mentoring PhD students. He is a senior member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and has held leadership roles in top scientific societies. He has authored over 150 publications, many of which address the intersection of AI, behavioral science, and digital health in chronic disease management.

Linguistic representations and their role in the era of LLMs
2026-01-30 11:15 - 16:00 | Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus, University of Oslo
We are pleased to invite you to the trial lecture and public defence of Huiling You, PhD candidate at SFI MediaFutures.
Date: 30 JanuaryVenue: Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus, University of Oslo
Time:
11:15 Trial lecture
13:15 Disputation
PhD thesis:Event Extraction from News: Resources, Methods and Application
Trial lecture:Linguistic representations and their role in the era of LLMs
Main research findings:
In an era of information overload, transforming unstructured news into structured knowledge is a fundamental challenge for natural language processing. Event extraction, the process of identifying specific occurrences and the people or organizations involved, is essential for tracking global developments and detecting emerging crises. By automating these processes, we can significantly improve the efficiency of news analysis and the consistency of information tracking across diverse media landscapes.
This thesis advances both the methodologies and resources available for event extraction in the news domain. The research shifts from treating events as isolated labels toward representing them as unified semantic graphs that capture the full context of how entities and events interact. To address the gap in support for smaller languages, the work introduces new annotated datasets and investigates generative AI techniques that excel in settings where training data is limited.
The findings demonstrate that these sophisticated models produce more detailed and accurate representations of complex news narratives than traditional approaches. Additionally, the thesis shows how this structured analysis can be applied to evaluate and improve the factual consistency of automated news summaries. Ultimately, this research offers a robust framework for building more reliable and linguistically inclusive systems for global news monitoring.
Adjudication committee:

Professor Antske Fokkens, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Professor Marco Kuhlmann, Linköping University, Sweden
Professor Martin Giese, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

Supervisors:

Professor Lilja Øvrelid, University of Oslo, Norway
Professor Erik Velldal, University of Oslo, Norway
Associate Professor Samia Touileb, University of Bergen, Norway

Chair of defence:

Associate Professor Ellen Munthe-Kaas, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo

Arctic Frontiers 2026 - Turn of the Tide
2026-02-02 08:00 - 2026-02-05 17:00 | Clarion The Edge Hotel, Tromsø
Arctic Frontiers is a catalyst for decision-making and network building by mobilizing key voices of science, policy, business, and local Arctic communities, to rapidly turn knowledge into actions.
The Arctic Frontiers Administration has, since 2007, organized the annual Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, which gathers scientists, businesses, policymakers and representative of local and indigenous peoples for holistic discussions about the future of the Arctic region. Additionally, the organization hosts year-round activities, including Arctic Frontiers Abroad events, Arctic Frontiers Open events for the public and Arctic Frontiers Young events for the future generation of Arctic leaders between 5-35 years old.
Arctic Frontiers works closely with our partner network to provide knowledge-based and up-to-date perspectives on Arctic issues. The competence and interdisciplinarity of the partner network are unique in both national and international contexts.
Turn of the Tide 2026
In the Arctic, as across the globe, tides are shifting. Geopolitical landscapes are evolving, climate systems are accelerating, and economic structures are being reshaped. From rising temperatures and economic recalibration to cultural resurgence, the Arctic is both a witness to and a driver of transformation. This year’s theme underscores the ebb and flow of the world, and the time for change. In this moment of opportunity, we invite participants to reflect on the rhythms of global change and their implications for the pan-Arctic region. In 2026 we will bring together leading voices to examine the state of Arctic collaboration, economic transitions, infrastructure needs, technological frontiers, and the health of the ocean that unites the region. And as the world’s tide turns, we will explore how the Arctic can influence, adapt to, and help shape the global future.

Science SESSIONS

Arctic Frontiers 2026 will feature 7 different science and research themes. These are designed to be interdisciplinary and welcome submissions from natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, law, management, and more. All researchers are welcome to submit an abstract to the session that best suits their work.
The themes for 2026 are:

Monitoring, Modeling, and Mitigating the Consequences of Arctic Permafrost Change
Maritime Extremes: Communication, Uncertainty and Emerging Technologies
High Tide for Arctic Preparedness
Governance and Policy for Sustainable Space Activities
Ocean Observational Pyramid: From Seabed to Space Monitoring
Maintaining and Developing Arctic Observing Capabilities
Arctic Transformation: Climate Change and Cumulative Effects on Ecosystems

Centre leader Christoph Trattner will be part of the Science Committee for the session called High Tide for Arctic Preparedness.
2026 Conference Program will be launched in November.

Innovation Work in Academia: SFI MediaFutures' Approach and Experience.
2026-02-04 09:00 - 10:00 | SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, Bergen, 5007, Norway
We are pleased to invite you to the Academic Morning Coffee, where Christoph Senf from MediaFutures will discuss innovation work in academia and the MediaFutures approach.
Date: 4 FebruaryVenue: SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, 5007 Bergen
Time: 9:15-10:00 (coffee and tea served from 9:00)
Abstract:
What does innovation work look like at a university research center? This conversation explores how the SFI MediaFutures: Research Centre for Responsible Media Technology and Innovation has developed its distinctive industry-academic partnership model, and the opportunities and challenges that emerge when bridging academic research and media industry needs. We will discuss conceptual frameworks for understanding innovation, MediaFutures’ collaborative approach, and key strategic and practical lessons learned.
Dr. Christopher (‘Chris’) Senf is Innovation Coordinator at SFI MediaFutures, where he coordinates the Centre’s research-to-innovation projects with major Norwegian media companies. A political philosopher by training, Chris completed his PhD at UiB in 2023. He was a Fulbright Fellow at UMass Boston (2021) and Oxford Alumni from Saïd Business School’s Strategic Innovation Online Programme (2024).
The conversation will be in English.

Why should we consider ethical and societal aspects in the development of language models?
2026-03-04 09:00 - 10:00 | SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, Bergen, 5007, Norway
On Wednesday, 4 March, Samia Touileb, Associate Professor at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, will join Academic Morning Coffee to talk about: Why should we consider ethical and societal aspects in the development of language models?
Date: 4 MarchVenue: SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, 5007 Bergen
Time: 9:15-10:00 (coffee and tea served from 9:00)
Abstract:
As language models become increasingly integrated into everyday life, the need to understand and mitigate their ethical risks grows. These technologies influence various aspects of our lives, making it important to ask questions such as: How can we measure and reduce the social and cultural biases embedded in language models? What methods exist for evaluating the safety of these systems and preventing potential harm? Is it possible to adapt language models to our ethical, cultural, and societal values while ensuring transparency and accountability? And are we capable of developing robust evaluation mechanisms?
Samia Touileb is an Associate Professor in language technology (Natural Language Processing) with research interests in bias and fairness in models, information extraction, automatic summarisation, and applications of language technology and machine learning in social science research. She received the Faculty’s Award for Dissemination in 2025 and, in the same year, became a member of the Young Academy of Norway (AYF). In this conversation, Touileb will discuss some of the most pressing concerns related to the rapid development of large language models, both globally and in the Norwegian context.
The conversation will be in Norwegian.

EBU: Data Technology Seminar 2026
2026-03-10 09:00 - 2026-03-12 14:00 | European Broadcasting Union, L'Ancienne-Route 17A 1218, Grand-Saconnex / Geneva, Switzerland
The Data Technology Seminar 2026 brings together Europe’s public service media leaders, data experts, and technologists in Geneva to explore how data and artificial intelligence solutions are designed, governed, and deployed at scale – from foundational technologies to production systems and audience-facing services.
The seminar includes interactive sessions and demonstrations, where technology partners and broadcasters present production-ready AI and data solutions that showcase innovative strategies and automation across the media value chain, from production to archives.
Participants will gain practical insight into how media organisations transition from AI and data ambition to operational reality, focusing on data foundations, governance choices, architectural decisions, and scalable systems.
Date
10-12 March 2026
Venue
European Broadcasting Union
L’Ancienne-Route 17A
1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva / Switzerland
Tel +41 22 717 21 11
Organiser
European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
For more details, please visit the organisers’ website.
Our connection to the European Broadcasting Union is further reinforced through Professor Alexandre Rouxel, member of our International Advisory Committee and a Data Scientist and Project Coordinator at the EBU within the Technology and Innovation department.

Samia Touileb & Lilja Øvrelid at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
2026-03-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Drammensveien 78, Oslo, Norway
Samia Touileb and Lilja Øvrelid from MediaFutures will participate as keynote speakers in a conversation at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, as part of the Forskning og KI (Research and AI) series. The event will focus on the themes of research sovereignty and artificial intelligence, discussing their implications for the future of media and technology. It will provide valuable insights into how AI intersects with academic research and the importance of sovereignty in the rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Speakers:Samia Touileb is an Associate Professor in Language Technology at the Department of Information and Media Studies at the University of Bergen. She is a member of the Academy of Young Researchers and was honored with the Communication Award by the Faculty of Social Sciences in November 2025.
Lilja Øvrelid is a Professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, where she leads the Language Technology Group. Her research focuses on text processing using machine learning techniques.
Date: 11th March 2026Location: Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
For more details, please visit the official event page.

SFI MediaFutures Lunch Seminar: Meet Ryan Anthony Marinelli
2026-03-27 11:15 - 12:45 | MediaFutures, Media Futures HQ, 3rd floor, Bergen, 5008
Join us for a lunch seminar with our new postdoctoral researcher Ryan Anthony Marinelli, who will introduce himself and his work.
Ryan will present his previous research and current research interests, followed by his postdoctoral plan and project collaboration ideas with our industry partners.
All are welcome!
Date: 27 MarchTime: 11:15 – 12:45Venue: MediaFutures
Abstract:From Exploitation to Representation: Evaluating Secure AI and Norwegian EmbeddingsThis talk opens by exploring AI safety and security across different levels of abstraction. At the highest level, we examine how AI interacts with society and how filtering mechanisms can be applied to mitigate risks. In contrast, the lowest level is explored through mechanistic interpretability, focusing on how models memorize information and how they may be aligned with human values.The second part of the talk focuses on embeddings and recent evaluation efforts to understand the ability of large language models to function as embedding models. There is particular interest in embeddings within a news context, analyzing how to best support retrieval and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) in more specialized use cases, including Norwegian-language settings.

SFI MediaFutures Industry Stakeholder Workshop Day
2026-04-29 10:00 - 17:00 | MediaFutures, Media Futures HQ, 3rd floor, Bergen, 5008
We are happy to confirm the date for our first SFI MediaFutures Industry Stakeholder Workshop Day, co-hosted with our colleagues at Medieklyngen Bergen.
Date: Wednesday, April 29th, 2026
Time: 10:00–17:00 (+ dinner afterwards approx. til 22:00)
Venue: SFI MediaFutures Research Centre, Media City Bergen
The purpose of this event is to create a space for more conversation and project-ideation, bringing together representatives from each industry and user partner organization alongside our work package leaders and senior researchers.
Here is the agenda for the day:
10:00–10:15 | Coffee, Welcome, & Opening (15 min) @ SFI MediaFutures
10:15–11:15 | Slot One (60 min) @ SFI MediaFutures

Presentation 1 (10 min) Are Tverberg // TV2
Presentation 2 (10 min) Mehdi Elahi // SFI MediaFutures

Table discussion (25 min)
Plenary feedback (15 min)

11:15–12:15 | Slot Two (60 min) @ SFI MediaFutures

Presentation 1 (10 min) JC Lopez, Victorina Demirel, & Anna Lunde // Schibsted
Presentation 2 (10 min) Samia Touileb & Ryan A. Marinelli // SFI MediaFutures

Table discussion (25 min)
Plenary feedback (15 min)

12:15–13:15 | Lunch & Networking (60 min)
— ca. 15 min. walk to TV2 // Meeting point: MCB Atrium, next to ping pong table —
13:30–14:15 | Site Visit One // @ TV2 (45 min)

Guided Tour + Q&A on the spot (30 min) Are Tverberg & Snorre Alvsvåg // TV2
Presentation + Q&A on the spot (15min) Yuki Onishi, Nataliya Nymo, & Snorre Alvsvåg // SFI MediaFutures, Vizrt, & TV2

— ca. 15 min. walk to TV2 // Meeting point: MCB Atrium, next to ping pong table —
14:30–15:00 | Site Visit Two // @ NRK (30 min)

Guided tour (20 min) + Q&A (10 min) Medieklyngen & NRK

— ca. 15 min walk to Medieklyngen // Meeting point: MCB Atrium, next to ping pong table —
15:15–16:00 | Slot Three (45 min) @ Medieklyngen

Presentation 1 (5 min) Jan Stian Vold // BT
Presentation 2 (10 min) Emily LaRosa // SFI MediaFutures

Table discussion (20 min)
Plenary feedback (10 min)

16:00–17:00 | Slot Four (60 min) @ Medieklyngen

Presentation 1 (5 min) Kajsa Garmann Lønrusten / Faktisk.no
Presentation 2 (5 min) Vinay Setty / Factiverse
Presentation 3 (10 min) Hina Afridi / SFI MediaFutures

Table discussion (25 min)
Plenary feedback (15 min)

17:00–17:10 | Wrap-up & Close (10 min)
17:10–18:00 | Reception@ Medieklyngen
19:00–22:00 | Dinner & Networking // @ Colonialen Sann Restaurant
We are already very much looking forward to hosting you all in Bergen at our Centre. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions in the meantime.
MediaFutures Consortium members are welcome to join the event.

Call for Participation: Workshop Tracking Eyes and Mind
2026-05-04 10:00 - 2026-05-06 14:30 | University of Bergen, venue TBA
From May 4th to 6th, the University of Bergen, in collaboration with MediaFutures, is organizing Workshop Tracking Eyes and Mind.
To view the updated program and register for the event, please visit the official organizer’s website.
Registration Deadline:
30.03.2026 – 23.55
Workshop Goals:
The workshop focus on demonstrations of eye tracking designs in Linguistics and Human Computer Interaction.
Introduction to Intermediate Level + Network building
Invited Poster presentations.
Target Audience:
Advanced MA students and Ph.D. Scholarship students
Researchers in Linguistics and/or Human Computer Interaction and/or
AI/NLP who want to use Eye Tracking in their Research.
Invited Lecturers:
Andrew Duchowski
Mauro Manassi
Agnieszka Konopka
Professor Andrew Duchowski is a world-leader in the field of eye tracking.
Local Team:
Christer Johansson
Morten Fjeld
Maki Kubota
Jade Sandstedt
Associate Member
Oana Geman (Chalmers)
Organizers:
Professor Christer Johansson, Department of Linguistic Literary and Aesthetic Studies (UiB)
Professor Morten Fjeld, Department of Information Science and Media Studies (UiB) and WP-leader in SFI MediaFutures
Sponsors:
the Bergen University Fund
HCI Infrastructure Grant, UiB
Accessibility Lab, UiB
SFI MediaFutures, UiB
To view the updated program and register for the event, please visit the official organizer’s website.

Nordic Media Days (Nordiske Mediedager)
2026-05-06 - 2026-05-08 | Grieghallen
Nordic Media Days (Nordiske Mediedager) is the biggest media conference in Northern Europe, bringing together journalists, editors, media leaders, researchers, and industry professionals to discuss key developments in journalism, media, and communication.
The event offers insights into both current challenges and emerging trends in the media landscape.
Nordic Media Days is relevant for media professionals, researchers, students, and others interested in the role of media in society and the future of journalism.
Date: 6-8 May 2026Location: Grieghallen, Edvard Griegs plass 1, 5015 Bergen
For more details, please visit the organisers’ website.

MIX Innovation Day 2026
2026-05-08 10:00 - 12:30 | Media City Bergen, Lars Hilles gate 30, Bergen, 5008, Norway
Date: 8th May 2026
Time: 10:00-12:30
Venue: Media City Bergen: Atlantis, Atriet
Innovation Day has traditionally been an event where bachelor’s and master’s students in Media and Interaction Design (MIX) showcase the prototypes they have developed throughout the semester. This year, they are taking the event a step further by inviting more courses to participate and present their semester projects.
The event highlights innovation, knowledge sharing, and the development of digital services, and provides students with a valuable arena to showcase both their academic expertise and creative solutions. It is a unique opportunity to demonstrate what the students, and the courses they represent, have to offer.
The event is organized by the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen (UiB).
To view the updated program and register for the event, please visit the official organizer’s website.

MediaFutures Series Seminar: Soheila Molaei "From Graphs to Graph Neural Networks: Applications in Multi-Modal Heterogeneous Real-World Data"
2026-05-08 13:00 - 14:00 | MediaFutures, Media Futures HQ, 3rd floor, Bergen, 5008
MediaFutures warmly welcomes Soheila Molaei talk on:
“From Graphs to Graph Neural Networks: Applications in Multi-Modal Heterogeneous Real-World Data”

All are welcome! Lunch will be served.

Date: 8 May
Time: 13:00-14:00
Venue: MediaFutures

TitleFrom Graphs to Graph Neural Networks: Applications in Multi-Modal Heterogeneous Real-World Data

AbstractIn this talk, I will introduce the basic ideas behind graphs and graph neural networks (GNNs), and discuss why they have become powerful tools for modelling complex, structured, and heterogeneous real-world data. I will begin with an overview of graph-based representations and the core principles of message passing and graph representation learning, before moving to a range of AI applications where GNNs provide advantages over conventional learning approaches. In particular, I will discuss applications in heterogeneous and multimodal settings, including privacy-preserving federated learning, neuro-symbolic modelling, and emerging graph-based methods for spatial and multi-modal data integration. Overall, the talk aims to connect the foundations of graph learning with current AI challenges involving structure, heterogeneity, and multi-source data.

Speaker’s bioSoheila Molaei is a senior researcher in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence and machine learning, with a particular emphasis on graph neural networks, federated learning, neuro-symbolic AI, and learning from multimodal and heterogeneous data. Her work explores how graph-based methods can support robust, interpretable, and privacy-aware AI systems across complex real-world applications. She has also collaborated with researchers at the University of Bergen on graph-based and neuro-symbolic learning research.

Public lecture by Luciano Floridi
2026-05-20 15:30 - 16:45 | Storsalen, Nygårdsgaten 5 (første etasje)
Welcome to a public lecture with our new honorary doctor professor Luciano Floridi.
Date: 20.05.2026
Time:15.30–16.15
Venue:Storsalen, Nygårdsgaten 5
Please arrive five to ten minutes before the starting time.

The University of Bergen has appointed Professor Luciano Floridi of Yale University as an honorary doctor, following a nomination from the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Department of Information Science and Media Studies.
Professor Floridi will give a public lecture drawing on his foundational contributions to information ethics, the philosophy of AI, and digital society. The title of the lecture is: “What is the impact of AI on Democracy?”. You can read more about the lecture here.
Through his role on the MediaFutures International Advisory Committee, Professor Floridi actively contributes to shaping the centre’s research agenda on responsible media technologies and AI-driven innovation, strengthening the bridge between cutting-edge research, industry needs, and societal values.
The honorary doctorate will be formally conferred at a ceremony in the University Aula on 21 May 2026. The appointment of Professor Floridi further strengthens MediaFutures’ international profile and underlines the University of Bergen’s commitment to advancing responsible and trustworthy media technologies.
Read more about Professor Floridi and his role at MediaFutures here.
On the occasion of his appointment as an honorary doctor, Professor Luciano Floridi was interviewed by Innovation Coordinator at MediaFutures Christopher Senf and Communication Officer at the Infomedia Department Malgorzata Anna Pacholczyk. Read the interview here.
The lecture is open to the general public. Everybody is welcome!

Workshop & Debate: Luciano Floridi on AI and social futures
2026-05-20 17:00 - 19:00 | Media City Bergen, Lars Hilles gate 30, Bergen, 5008, Norway
Date: 20.05.2026
Time: 17.00–19.00
Venue: Media City Bergen, Lars Hillesgate 30
Our honorary doctor Luciano Floridi will be the main guest at a workshop on the topic “AI and social futures” in Media City Bergen. The workshop will engage staff, students and stakeholders at Infomedia in a discussion of core challenges for the future of academia. The event is by invitation only.
The event is intended to engage people at the Infomedia department in a dialogue with professor Luciano Floridi about central challenges for academia posed by generative AI.
We invite our academic and administrative staff, our PhD candidates, and master and bachelor students, and we also invite stakeholders and partners associated with Infomedia. We will engage in a structured roundtable discussion on societal challenges brought on by AI.
The workshop will be held in the “Redaksjonsrom” in Infomedia’s campus at Media City Bergen, Lars Hilles gate 30. The doors will be open and we will look for our guests as they arrive.
You can read more about the workshop here.
Through his role on the MediaFutures International Advisory Committee, Professor Floridi actively contributes to shaping the centre’s research agenda on responsible media technologies and AI-driven innovation, strengthening the bridge between cutting-edge research, industry needs, and societal values.
The honorary doctorate will be formally conferred at a ceremony in the University Aula on 21 May 2026. The appointment of Professor Floridi further strengthens MediaFutures’ international profile and underlines the University of Bergen’s commitment to advancing responsible and trustworthy media technologies.
Read more about Professor Floridi and his role at MediaFutures here.
On the occasion of his appointment as an honorary doctor, Professor Luciano Floridi was interviewed by Innovation Coordinator at MediaFutures Christopher Senf and Communication Officer at the Infomedia Department Malgorzata Anna Pacholczyk. Read the interview here.

UiB AI Seminar: AI Alignment
2026-05-28 09:00 - 15:45 | Storsalen, Nygårdsgaten 5, first floor, Nygårdsgaten 5, Bergen, 5015, Norway
Date: 28th of May 2026
Time: 09.00–15.45
Venue: Storsalen, Nygårdsgaten 5, 5015 Bergen (first floor)
The event brings together experts, researchers, and industry professionals to explore, discuss, and advance our understanding of the challenges and solutions related to aligning artificial intelligence systems with human values and goals.
The seminar is organized and moderated by Samia Touileb, an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen and co-leader of the Norwegian Language Technologies research stream at MediaFutures.
Among the speakers is Ryan Marinelli, a postdoctoral researcher at MediaFutures, who will give a presentation on safety or security.
To view the updated program and register for the event, please visit the official organizer’s website.
