SINGAPORE - Readers of The Straits Times and other digital news sites of Singapore Press Holding Limited (SPH) will soon have articles curated for them based on their individual news consumption habits and other attributes.

SPH said yesterday it is partnering local machine learning start-up, DC Frontiers, to develop a content recommendation engine driven by artificial intelligence which can do this.

The engine will use semantic analysis and collaborative filtering algorithms to understand SPH's wide variety of content and its diverse base of users, automatically tailoring relevant content to each reader's preferences.

Mr Anthony Tan, deputy CEO of SPH, said: "AI technologies offer great potential in the news and media industry, and we are keenly exploring ways to apply them to improve our products and better serve our users."

He said the engine would allow readers to access content automatically tailored to their preferences and relevant to them. "This will not only enhance the reader journey but also increase internal productivity within our newsrooms," he noted.

Mr Daryl Neo, founding director of DC Frontiers, said: "We are pleased to collaborate with SPH on creating new value for its users. The news is a valuable source of curated reliable information, and this AI engine is an important foundation which will enable more things to come."

The project will be partially funded by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).