Why Axel Springer is ‘obsessed’ about AI

Brian Carruthers

Generative AI has the potential to bring journalism and media businesses to a new level if they respond with the necessary speed, according to Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Axel Springer.

Axel Springer is “obsessed” with generative artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism, according to Mathias Döpfner, the chairman/CEO of the German publishing giant.

Such an obsession applies at the personal level for Döpfner, too: The first time he used ChatGPT – the AI-powered chatbot run by OpenAI – earlier this year, it was an “epiphany moment,” he told the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

“It has changed my habits,” he said. “It’s really replacing search a great deal for me.”

It’s also clear to Döpfner that the tech has the potential “to bring journalism, and to bring...

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