Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ESO’s communication products and services
ESO’s Department of Communication is responsible for producing the vast majority of images, videos and text published on ESO’s public website and social media channels. We also make a broad selection of astronomical images, animations, illustrations, photos and video footage available under Creative Commons License according to our copyright notice, as a service to the community, media and the public in our free image and video archives. Both resources are used heavily by scientists, media, broadcasters, publishers and content creators around the world. With the rise of AI tools and technologies for content production, we strive for transparency so that our audiences have an informed understanding of how our content is created. This page provides a summary of how AI is used in our communication products and the image and video material we make available.
We do use AI technologies to:
- Improve the overall quality of images, videos or audio (e.g. upscaling low-resolution footage or reducing noise), with the exception of astronomical images or scientific data
- Improve or automatise production workflows (e.g. using speech to text recognition tools for transcriptions, translations and subtitling, which are then manually checked and edited)
- Aid research, brainstorming and inspiration in written and visual content production (e.g. to help understand certain technical concepts, brainstorm titles and graphic design ideas)
- Aid proof-reading tasks (e.g. to help clarify a grammar concept)
- Occasionally create thumbnail images for YouTube videos
We do NOT use AI technologies to:
- Process or create astronomical or other scientific images, including scientific animations and illustrations
- Add or change features in observations or scientific data
- Distort the meaning of documentary photo or video content (e. g. interviews, photos/videos of people, instruments or our facilities and sites)
- Distort the meaning of image or video material in general
- Generate written content
Any content generated primarily with AI would be clearly labelled “AI generated”.
AI technology and legislation are rapidly changing, and the way we use AI may be different in the future too. We will update this page regularly to account for that.
If you have any questions regarding the usage of AI tools in content published on this website and in our social media channels, please contact: press@eso.org.