INSIGHT

The digital SRG in the age of AI: A strong public service for a strong democracy

6 November 2026

As AI reshapes how information is found and opinions are formed, SRG SSR Director General Susanne Wille called for a responsible approach grounded in trust, transparency and the public service mandate.

This speech has been translated from German and French. The spoken words take precedence. 

By Susanne Wille, Director General of SRG SSR

Anyone wishing to capture the fundamental spirit of our times in a single sentence will find it in Charles Dickens’ classic *A Tale of Two Cities*:‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’.

This famous opening line is often quoted these days when the subject of artificial intelligence comes up. For it captures well just how torn and ambivalent a society in transition can be. When there are sweeping changes to the way we work, the way we think, and the way we communicate.

When the novel was published in the mid-19th century, England was at the height of the Industrial Revolution, with all the familiar social upheavals that entailed. Dickens highlights what had already befallen France just under a century earlier. He went on :

‘It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness’.
Dickens describes societies in a state of upheaval. Today, we are experiencing our own upheaval with AI.

Read more: The human voice is our most important currency

The age of wisdom: Never before have knowledge and education been as easily accessible as they are today – thanks to AI. And AI can expand our knowledge.
The age of foolishness: Never before has false information been produced in seconds and disseminated to millions. And AI can provide us with convincing answers, even if they are wrong.

Increasingly, platforms, their algorithms and artificial intelligence tools are influencing the information that people see, hear and access.
To cite just one example: among 18 to 24-year-olds, one in five already uses AI-based chatbots to stay informed. In the past, we would broadcast a programme that millions of people watched at the same time (this is known as the ‘one-to-many’ principle).

Information sovereignty vs independence 

When we discuss the opportunities and risks of AI, we must also ask ourselves how we can strengthen our information sovereignty and, by extension, the Swiss media Landscape.

I see five levers for SRG SSR:

Firstly, we must put AI at the service of society. How can we use AI to do things that we have not been able to do until now?How can the audience – the Swiss public – benefit as much as possible from AI? How can we use AI to fulfil our remit even more effectively?

In doing so, we are not only fulfilling our corporate responsibility, but also our journalistic one.

Secondly, we need sound solutions and partnerships to ensure we can use AI effectively for the benefit of the Swiss population. We will therefore be making audiovisual material from the SRG archive available to the Swiss AI model Apertus. Apertus is being developed by ETH Zurich and EPFL. In this way, we are making Switzerland’s largest audiovisual data repository available to Swiss researchers.

Thirdly, we are protecting the asset that is so crucial to democracy: journalism. We are therefore doing everything in our power to ensure that our content no longer becomes the raw material for AI models without our consent and without payment. In this way, we are trying to stop the uncontrolled outflow of data. Since August, training bots and crawlers have been blocked when they visit our websites. We are seeking dialogue with technology companies so that we can negotiate on an equal footing regarding transparency and the value of journalistic content.

In fourth, we are making a conscious investment in technology so that, through our own platforms such as Play+, we can tell stories that are relevant to our country. This is about technological sovereignty and reducing dependencies.

In fifth, SRG SSR and the private media must work more closely together to strengthen media diversity. Competition is now very much international. SRG SSR is prepared to share its reach with others and open up its platforms in order to strengthen Swiss journalism as a whole.

In sixth, we are committed to strengthening the public’s AI and media literacy. This also involves addressing and examining the opportunities, risks and developments surrounding AI across various broadcast formats and online channels – from news and science to culture – thereby bringing the debate into wider society.

Conclusion

A strong public service media sector always contributes to a well-informed public, to education and to cultural development. In the age of AI in particular, this mission is more relevant than ever.

We need a trustworthy public service that helps everyone form their own opinions and creates spaces for dialogue. For public service broadcasting is not limited to building trust and providing guidance through independent and reliable information. It also ensures that there are still issues which Switzerland and its people can discuss together. And this is particularly true in the digital sphere.

Switzerland has a great opportunity here if it pursues a clear vision of a digital public service. An opportunity that will benefit the population above all. SRG SSR wants to be part of this debate.

There is no shortage of gloomy predictions about where the age of AI is heading. Nor is there any shortage of scenarios in which all hopes rest on artificial intelligence.

As Charles Dickens wrote in *A Tale of Two Cities*: ‘It was the best of times. It was the worst of times’.

We experience both at the same time. The novel embodies the art of seeing both: opportunities and risks.
Not to fall into black-and-white thinking. That is the responsibility of all of us here in this hall. Whether AI changes the world for the better or for the worse does not depend on the technology itself. But on how we deal with it.

Strengthening the public’s AI and media literacy is a key part of the puzzle. I am therefore very much looking forward to the AI Literacy Campaign launched today.
Closing skills gaps requires collaboration between the public service, the business sector and academia.
Ultimately, we all want to work towards the same goal: namely, to be an informed society that makes informed decisions, engages in debate and does not leave thinking to AI.

But knowing how to use AI wisely is how we strengthen the foundations of our democracy; with responsible citizens, open dialogue and a shared determination to shape the future. And in such a way that future generations can look back and say: ‘It was the best of times.’

Thank you very much for your attention.