Artificial Intelligence will not obliterate journalism, but will change the way journalists work, said Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) president of the board Aimilios Perdikaris, speaking at a two-day conference at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA).

Perdikaris participated in a panel on fighting fake news and misinformation at the "IQ Media Conference: The future of digital journalism - artificial intelligence, innovation and integrity" held by the IQ Media Hub at the UoA's Department of Communications and Mass media.

He said that the role of a national news agency is 'critical' and asserted that "journalists will always have the last word before something is published," underlining the importance of critical thinking.

Manager at the Financial Times Aliya Itzkowitz called the low confidence of people in traditional mass media (according to polls, only 40%) "a great threat" to journalism, and said the developments in AI concerning generative image and video were "a great challenge".

Global Media Registry founder and CEO Olaf Steenfadt called for 'protective layers' between Big Tech and consumers, such as plug-ins or AI agents, with specific protocols and models to follow.

Reader.gr editor in chief Yiannis Dimitrelos said the greatest challenge for journalists is to persist in values, the search for truth, and practising integrity. Whatever AI offers should lead readers to "constantly review which part of what it provides is logical and which not," he said. The basic way to deal with fake news and misinformation is "control, communication with the sources, and digging as deeply as possible," he said.

Presented during the first day of the conference on Holy Monday (April 14) was a digital newsroom designed for young college graduates globally to create original field reporting, YOJO (Young Journalists). This will be based in Athens, supported by experienced journalists, and will allow access to contemporary narration and production tools. It is expected to start running as of 2026.

In addition, two workshops took place: "Solution journalism: How to attract your audience" by Sophie Casals (Nice-Matin editor in chief), and "AI: Do's and Don'ts" by Jonathan Soma (Data Journalism at Columbia University).

ANA-MPA is communications sponsor of the two-day conference, which ends on Holy Tuesday (April 15).

The conference is accessible by live streaming on ANA-MPA's channel on YouTube at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/@AMNAwebTV.

Its schedule is available at the following link: https://iqmediahub.com/conference/.