Imagine stepping onto a flight and flipping through a magazine, only to discover that every article, every image, was created entirely by artificial intelligence. This is the bold vision of FlySepehran, the first airline to introduce an AI-generated tourism magazine. In an exclusive interview, we uncover how the airline navigated the challenges of working with AI to craft a publication that blends cutting-edge technology with the art of travel storytelling.
"We wanted our passengers to be the first in the world to read a completely AI-generated magazine—an ambitious and simple idea that took flight."
What was the idea/motivation behind the project?
"The idea of producing an AI magazine came to us very simply and at the same time ambitiously. First, we researched whether an AI tourism magazine has been published elsewhere in the world. After making sure that we were the first (or at least among the firsts), we decided to be the first airline to produce a tourism magazine with AI. Our goal was for our passengers to read a totally AI-generated magazine before anybody else in the world.
The fact is that all airlines have magazines and many other entertainment options for their passengers. But we thought that if one day passengers would read an AI-generated magazine while flying, they should be our passengers, and the AI magazine should be generated by FlySepehran. A simple and ambitious idea!
However, with the introduction of AI, there have been rumors that AI may soon replace humans in many different professions and job positions. That someone might suddenly find himself in this circumstance and see artificial intelligence as a replacement is terrifying.
We decided to create the first AI tourism magazine since our airline's owner, who is also very young (under 40), always emphasizes the importance of believing in the talents and skills of young employees. He brings up this topic in all meetings.
We decided to publish the first travel AI magazine to prove that the emergence of AI does not mean the end of cooperation with people, but the beginning of learning new skills and training experts who not only do not limit themselves to old routines but also fearlessly accept changes. So we welcomed the arrival of artificial intelligence."
"AI was like a newly hired employee; we had to learn how to communicate and find a common language to bring our vision to life."
Take us through the process of how you created the magazine. How and at which point during the development process did you use AI?
"Before we started, we estimated that producing an AI magazine would only take five to seven working days. But in fact, it took three months—longer than it did for our previous magazines—from the planning to the magazine's release.
Initially, it seemed easy to explore various AIs for generating texts and images, purchase various AIs that are appropriate for our work, create user accounts, buy the premium versions, and learn how to work with different AIs, but as the project went on, we became aware of the problems.
AI was like a newly hired employee; we couldn’t fully discern its characteristics and abilities, and AI couldn’t fully understand our needs. We needed to come to an understanding of a common language and discover how to communicate with AI.
AI was not familiar with Iran's historical and natural heritage. It didn't know Farsi very well. For example, when we wanted AI to write a descriptive paragraph about one of Iran's destinations, the result was an unusual description of an unknown destination in the middle of nowhere.
We were also shocked when we saw a number of disappointing images from a dim, horrifying future filled with misery and sadness when we tried to create an image of the future of a particular location, such as Tehran's Azadi Tower. Iran seems to have a gloomy future for AI. We even experienced odd results when we tried to generate an image of an A380. Gradually, we found out that we have to find a common language with our new colleague.
We began practicing writing prompts and continued refining our requests until we achieved the ideal text and images. This was definitely not easy. It was not something we could achieve in a week. Some days we spent several hours just crafting the right prompts to generate the desired images.
It was also challenging to produce an article in Farsi using AI; we had to be very specific about the type of writing, the tone, the audience, the topic, and the details we wanted to include in our articles. Additionally, we had to insure adherence to Farsi writing rules in our articles. After the work was done, we had to ask the AI to edit or rewrite parts of the text and then give us an acceptable English translation."
What was the feedback, and how did they react to it?
"The reports from passengers, our crew staff, and colleagues who had been on our flights were interesting. In this magazine, we made a comparison of real photos with images produced by AI, which captivated our readers. Our colleagues who had taken our flights frequently spoke about their experiences hearing excited discussions among passengers regarding the magazine, particularly its images. I once witnessed a child telling his father, "If the A380 is going to look like that in the future, I want to travel on it."
This magazine ran out faster than usual because the passengers took it with them. Also, when we decided to unveil our magazine for the first time at our annual ceremony, all our colleagues were surprised. Imagine! You are a member of a large family that unveils the first AI-generated tourism magazine."
What are your plans for the future regarding content creation with AI?
"AI is now a member of our team. We use different AIs to generate ideas, find reliable sources, produce or edit photos and videos, edit texts, and make sure punctuation and grammar are correct (especially in Arabic and English, which are not our native languages).
AI has become our constant assistant in various types of textual and visual content production. But if we want to produce another magazine with AI in the future, we are not sure. However, artificial intelligence is now a permanent member of FlySepehran’s editorial, design, and marketing teams."
Read more about the magazine in FlySepehran's blog article.
This interview is part of PANTA SPOTLIGHT where we publish interesting innovative cases coming up in the AI space and interview the creators about the background of the projects.
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