Re:Create Q&A with Daniel Nordberg

A brief introduction to Daniel

Daniel Nordberg works with generative AI and storytelling within media and entertainment. Over the past few years, he has produced films, podcasts, music, and books with a focus on children's and family content, as well as worked strategically with applied AI within the creative sector. He has also advised international media companies on AI-driven production processes and future creative workflows.

How do you use AI in your work?

I use generative AI as a creative and production tool within storytelling, animation, music, audio, and content development for children and families. Over the past few years, I have produced hundreds of short films, podcasts, books, and music projects where AI has been integrated into the pipeline.

My focus is primarily on applied AI—meaning how the technology is actually utilized in real productions rather than just as an experiment. This spans everything from ideation and storyboarding to visual workflows, voice pipelines, animation, and localization.

I have also worked strategically with AI within major media and entertainment companies, focusing on how AI can be integrated into creative processes without losing quality, tone, or human storytelling.

Why do you use AI?

For me, AI is fundamentally about enabling more people to create faster, more iteratively, and more experimentally. Previously, testing even a minor idea could require large teams and substantial budgets. With today’s tools, you can prototype stories, visual styles, and formats in days instead of months. This opens the door for more creators and a wider variety of stories.

At the same time, I don’t use AI to replace creativity, but to enhance it. The best results still stem from a strong concept, clear taste, storytelling, and human direction.

What works well?

What works best today is the speed of the ideation and development phase. The ability to quickly test visual worlds, characters, music, or different tones fundamentally changes how you can work creatively.

AI also works exceptionally well for smaller production teams that want to create content with a higher level of ambition than was previously possible. Another strength is that the tools have become much better at assisting with iteration. You can explore multiple versions of the same idea and find the right creative direction much faster.

What is challenging?

Perhaps the biggest misconception is that AI automatically creates good content. In practice, it still requires significant creative experience, a sense for storytelling, strong editorial work, and a critical eye.

The technology is also still inconsistent. Maintaining continuity between scenes, character consistency, emotional expression, and longer narrative formats remains challenging.

Additionally, there are important discussions surrounding rights, transparency, and how the industry should approach the technology in the long term. I believe we are still in the early stages of that development.

AI makes it easier than ever to create realistic content. How do you view the risks of misinformation, deepfakes, and AI-generated news, for example when the target audience is children and young people?

The fact that it has become easier to create misinformation, deepfakes, and convincing synthetic content is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of AI development. At the same time, I don’t think the solution is to try and stop the technology, but rather to increase our understanding of it.

Just as we teach children to be critical of sources on the internet, we now need to teach them to be critical of AI. I believe AI literacy should be introduced early in schools, where students can learn how models work, how they are trained, what hallucinations are, how content can be manipulated, and how to critically evaluate what they see online.

For children and young people, this becomes especially vital as they are growing up in a world where it will soon be difficult to distinguish between what is created by a human and what is generated by AI. Because of this, I also believe media and news organizations have a major responsibility to be transparent about when AI is used in production. The work that public service broadcasters are doing in this area, for instance, is highly important, and I believe the entire media landscape will need to develop clearer guidelines and transparency moving forward.

At the same time, I view AI as a fantastic tool for learning and creativity. Therefore, the challenge is not the technology itself, but equipping the next generation with the knowledge and tools to use it responsibly.

What is your advice to colleagues in the industry regarding the application of AI in their work?

My advice is to start practically and experiment firsthand. It is easy to get stuck in either hype or fear, but much of the understanding only comes when you actually use the tools in real creative processes.

I also believe it is crucial to view AI as a new creative layer rather than a replacement for humans. Taste, ideas, humor, timing, and emotional storytelling remain human strengths. Those who progress the furthest will likely be the ones who combine creative experience with a curiosity for new working methods.