AI-powered search on the Sveriges Radio (SR) Play mobile app is now helping audiences to explore news stories by asking questions and getting reliable summaries sourced only from the Swedish public broadcaster’s own journalism.

The chatbot project, which builds on long collaboration with SR by the European Broadcasting Union and our Neo and Peach AI frameworks, aims to improve news accessibility and engagement while ensuring accuracy.

Sveriges Radio, part of various AI initiatives with other EBU members to help public service media stay ahead in a fast-changing landscape, also sees the new service as a way to test the reliability of the technology and assess how audiences use it.

“This test combines factual news reporting with AI functionality – implemented responsibly,” Swedish Radio said in a recent blog.

“For public service media, it is crucial to develop independent technical solutions, even as we also utilize the best AI models when appropriate. The new news search function has been developed within this project step by step, to ensure both functionality and reliability.”

The blog – noting BBC research about problems with at least half of responses about the news by common AI agents – underscored the importance of credibility and trust by saying that “to maintain editorial control and ensure reliability, SR does not allow AI companies to scrape its content”.    

The new chatbot on the Sveriges Radio Play mobile app leverages the same underlying architecture now used for A European Perspective, the EBU’s pan-European networked newsroom.

”Together with Swedish Radio, we're gathering first-hand experience and user feedback on new AI-enabled user experiences”, the EBU's Head of Software Engineering Sébastien Noir said. 

”We're very excited about the opportunities for collaborative innovation of the Neo AI framework and its multilingual capabilities. We invite all members to consider joining the initiative!”

The SR chatbot’s database includes news stories from October 2020 onwards, with new content added in real time. Podcasts and radio shows may be integrated in the future.

As SR tests the AI-driven tool, public feedback will play a key role in refining how it works and looks. Users are invited to try out the feature and share their thoughts, contributing to the evolution of a news search tool that prioritizes accuracy, transparency and accessibility.

EBU Members who are intersted to learn more about EBU Neo are invited to contact Sébastien Noir.