Research in the public conversation
What happens when AI changes not just what we produce, but what we know, believe and trust?
Selected writing, interviews and public debate on responsible AI, journalism, learning and research policy.
A place to start
Ideas for a public conversation,
grounded in research.
When provenance becomes a seal of approval
Content credentials document where an image came from. That is not the same as proving a news source deserves our trust. The distinction matters for readers and newsrooms.
What will the AI generation pass on?
Today’s students will teach tomorrow’s professionals. Schools need to assess both what learners produce with AI and what they can understand and do on their own.
What has the AI expert actually done?
Journalists need more than an “AI expert” label. I argue for naming the work behind an expert’s claims and making the limits of that expertise explicit.
The reading room
Original headlines. English summaries.
Read each piece at its publisher.
16 selected pieces
Recent first · partial dates are labelledWhy AI is not just another calculator
Doing better with AI is not the same as retaining the skills needed to check its answers. An argument for keeping the human part of the thinking visible.
What has the AI expert actually done?
Journalists need more than an “AI expert” label. I argue for naming the work behind an expert’s claims and making the limits of that expertise explicit.
What will the AI generation pass on?
Today’s students will teach tomorrow’s professionals. Schools need to assess both what learners produce with AI and what they can understand and do on their own.
When a patient says “ChatGPT told me…”
An opinion piece on AI-generated health advice and the importance of discussing chatbot use in clinical consultations, drawing on research into the reliability of AI-generated nutrition information.
News images need a record of their origins
Photojournalist Nora Savosnick responds to my article on content credentials, arguing for provenance information that follows news photographs all the way to readers.
How hard should we nudge the reader?
A changed news feed can change clicks without changing interests. Responsible recommendation should help readers discover more while respecting their decision to say no.
When provenance becomes a seal of approval
Content credentials document where an image came from. That is not the same as proving a news source deserves our trust. The distinction matters for readers and newsrooms.
Making research entrepreneurship worth the risk
An argument for aligning researchers’ risk, control and rewards when universities seek to turn research into new companies.
Innovation stalls between research and use
Promising research can lose momentum between a project, a prototype and everyday use. Shared ownership and sustained collaboration need to survive those transitions.
AI makes content cheaper, and trust more costly
Labelling synthetic material is only part of the task. Journalism also needs ways to make authentic content traceable when it travels beyond a publisher’s own platform.
When better writing reveals less about learning
AI-assisted work can look excellent without revealing what its author understands. Assessment needs to distinguish polished output from independent capability.
Why not require leadership competence?
Universities prepare academics to teach. Leadership also needs preparation before people take responsibility for staff, budgets and institutional direction.
Higher education belongs at the heart of research policy
Students, researchers and lasting institutional knowledge are part of the infrastructure that turns research into value. Innovation policy should not separate them from the research it funds.
The application is not the research
AI-polished applications make it more important to separate the quality of a scientific idea from the quality of its written presentation.
How AI-edited images shape trust
An interview in Studvest’s expert-explainer series on image manipulation, media literacy and how people judge the information they encounter.
What AI can learn from journalism ethics
An earlier argument for using professional journalism ethics to guide the design and evaluation of responsible AI, without reducing ethics to a checklist.
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A curated selection, not a complete media record. “Opinion” identifies my own writing; interviews and responses identify the original author. English titles and summaries are editorial guides, not full translations. Dates appear at the precision verified; partial dates are placed after precisely dated entries in the same period. Some publishers may require a subscription.
For the next conversation
Christoph Trattner is Professor of Information Science at the University of Bergen and founder and director of SFI MediaFutures. His research examines how recommender systems and AI shape human behaviour, decisions and trust, with applications in media, health and food.
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The existing press-image gallery and downloadable kit are on the Services page, with image credits and contact details.
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Media enquiries trattner.christoph@gmail.com
For invited talks and advisory work, see Services →