RTBF hosted on 12 and 13 December 2016 a conference entitled "Big Data and Society" that aimed at discussing the effects and remedies of so-called "filter bubbles" on the one hand, and how recommendation algorithms should be designed to address Public Service Medias' missions on the other hand.

This conference was initiated by Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, RTBF Big Data / CRM manager, and organized together with the European Broadcasting Union (see also the EBU Big Data initiative).

Among other speakers, Dr. Emmanuel Tourpe, Director of TV programming and VOD at RTBF, presented a particularly interesting historical and philosophical perspective on algorithms and artificial intelligence. Dr. Tourpe discussed questions such as "do we live in the matrix" (which is subject to much controversy), the dataification of human behaviors and the bias and ethical concerns behind algorithmic models.

The video of Dr. Tourpe's presentation will be made available later in January 2017. In the meantime you can access his powerpoint presentation here, as well as his speech here. Below you'll find also a video capsule (in French) in which Dr. Tourpe answers some essential questions relating to his vision on Big Data and algorithms, and explains the role he foresees for Public Service Medias.

For further information regarding this news, please contact Pierre-Nicolas Schwab (psn@rtbf.be)