The BBC's Research and Development (R&D) Arm Services A Public Purpose, which, according to the department's director jatin aythora, is to make some of the technologies and invites either for free or at really low cost. This is something aythora says bbc r & d has done for many years.
Aythora sees his job as helping the team to achieve the Technical Breakthroughs That the news and media industry can benefit from. The team is tasked with development technologies and capability that benefit the wider Society with the uk in a way that minimies the cost to the bbc.
“We all focus on the public purpose of the bbc, which is very much research and development for social good,” he says.
Learning from different industry
Aythora believes he is a technologist at heart, having started his career as an engineer, and has worked across different industries as he Career Ladder. “Every time I've Changed Jobs, I've Changed Industries,” He Adds.
The benefits of working in many different industries have given aythora the options to continue learning, which he records as an important skill for Technology Leadership. “Curiosity and the ability to learn plays an important role,” He says, adding that this help with confidence and broadens the depth and breadth of knowledge.
When asked about applying technology knowledge knowledge knowledge, in different sector, in aythora's experience, irrespective of the business sector, technology challenges and options are quite Similar: “It's how you apply technology and what you do with it in the organisational context that matters the most. Technology is linked to the return on investment, which, which, in any Organization, has been to deliver value.”
Content credentials
A recent project the BBC Research and Development Team has been working on is around demonstrating the authenticity of content. “The verifiability of content Has become quite an important aspect of our daily lives. We often come across news that we question, and then we ask [for] Or we go to search for other sources to validate and verify, “Aythora says.
The team has been working with Microsoft and its Chief Scientific Officer, Eric Horvitz, for Several Years, Developing An Approach to Verifying Content Credit Credentials. “This is a really good example of transferal knowledge from one industry to another,” Adds aythora.
Aythora Previously worked at de bers and in diamond mining. One of the important challenges de bers faced was to pro. Diamonds.
“We invented a piece of technology [Forevermark] That would mark a diamond with a specific watermark that can be traced from where it originates to how many hands it would have expected over a period of time, “He Sames, Adding that Same CONSPTAN Applied in the content world.
“It's how you apply technology and what you do with it in the organisational context that matters the most”
Jatin Aythora, BBC Research and Development
For Aythora, Verifying Content is an important challenge not only for the news, the media industry and the bbc, but also also the wider technology industry. “The content credentials capability and the standards that we've invented are now ben adopted by most of the large technology organisations, include openai, google and microsoft,” He Says.
The Content Credentials Feature on the BBC News Site Provides a button which enables people reading stories to check the authenticity of the information. The tool uses metadata, such as the time or date an image was taken, compares locations, matches the weather conditions in the image to actual reported weather, notes, no casting in the correct way, and Runs Searches for other instances of the material online in case the image has been taken out of context.
Content Credentials is now a Technical Standard from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), which was co-fourted in 2019 by bbc research and development Adobe and microsoft.
BBC new verify published its first article using the C2Pa Standard in March 2024.
New music portal
Another Project Coming out of BBC R&D Looks at Evolving Radio Using Virtual Worlds in A Way That Can Draw in a Younger Audience, AS Aythora Explines: “Weian Exploring Performance Much More Interactive and Immersive for Younger Generations Who are not going to listen to the radio. “
Last Year, The BBC Partnered with Bristol-Based Tech Company Condense to Design Immersive Live Music Experiences for Younger Audines, which enables fans fans to join these live events on live Mobile or laptop. The new music portal, which began with radio 1's new music show, hosted by jack saunders, enables the audio to navigate to Navigate the venue like a video game whille chatting with others Platform.
“We made this experience easy for people to access – you [just] Need a device that's connected to the internet, “Says aythora.
He hopes that as virtual reality headsets become more popular and affordable, the experience can evolve to provide a true immersive experience using these devices.
Speech-to-text tech and ai
BBC R & D Tends to have a decade-long outlook on technology, which implies it has been working on certain technologies
Recalling the first implementation, Aythora Says: “We take it for granted today, because we have access to technology that can do Speech to textBut 10 years ago That wasn't the case. BBC R & D Had the best speech-to-text algorithm that was delivered 85% accuracy. ” This was significantly higher than the accuracy available from some provider, which, according to aythora, was only 30% accuracy. Sounds.
“When we start with the journey of speech to text, we are the market leaders, but we're not market leaders anymore. And the best of what the industry has to provide, “He says, adding that bbc r & d combines the AI Technologies Developed in-House and Products Awailable from Speech-Tea-text Provides to deterging to deterging Experiences for our audiences ”.
The BBC is also looking at using ai with video. “We believe defect detection using computer vision and ai models is going to be important for organizations like the bbc,” Aythora says. “There needs to be a method through what we are able
Innovation at the pace of the organ
The BBC's Biggest Challenge – And One That The Research and Development Team Needs to be cognizant of as it embarks on Technology Innovation – is how to deliver services at scale at an afordable cost paper.
“We are a public service organization. Technology eite to gain a competitive edge or drive profit.
It and Technology Leaders often Encounter Situations When they cannot achieve results as quickly as they would like Due to Organisational Constraints. Aythora believes patience is key: “Patience plays an important role in your ability as a leader not only to manage certainty and options, options, but the challenges as wells.”
Aythora also recommends it leaders validate their ideas, adding: “Don't assume that your idea is the right idea and the best idea. Confident you will become, either to pursue it or not pursue it. Validate it. “
This is important as good ideas tend to be taken up Eventually. “It's only a matter of time and context before the idea become more relevant,” he says.
Technologies and its leaders can often face what may see seem like Insurmountable Barriers and Objections to the Technology Proposals they put forward, but perseverance is key. Among the themes to come out of the conversation with aythora is one of self-ball-to use aythora's words: “self-balliaf is not instant; it banks a belief Over a period of time. That we go through. “