A new magazine media was established in Finland, where stories are translated into English with the help of artificial intelligence

No need like opening the Pinterest app to find that you are interested in Nordic interior design and design. In the international flow of images, it’s easy to come across articles from Finnish home and interior design magazines, but the international audience doesn’t get much else out of them apart from the pictures.

Worked in lifestyle journalism for years Maija Koski believes that people in Finland are even a little blind to how much interest our lifestyle has in the rest of the world.

“We live in the middle of everyday design. People have Iittala dishes and certain kinds of objects.”

That’s why Koski has been involved in founding an English-language magazine called Kotona.com. Koski works as the editor-in-chief of the media that was founded in January and belongs to A-lehti.

Over here by, the site has published articles that have been translated from Finnish to English with the help of artificial intelligence.

In 2023, the Media Industry Research Foundation granted A-lehti 62,172 euros for research in which an artificial intelligence-assisted tool suitable for translating stories was developed together with the University of Helsinki.

“The tool first translates and does one round of editing for the story. After that, the human translator always does his own editing of the text,” says editor-in-chief Koski.

According to Koski, it is possible that in the future content could be made directly in English.

According to Koski, the site differs from its international competitors in, among other things, Finnish hygge, which is “more jagged” than other Nordic countries. The Danish concept of hygge often refers to comfort and a feeling of homeliness.

According to Koski, Aikausmedia’s stories have attracted the most interest in the United States so far. Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Spain follow. According to Koski, the English-speaking population living in Finland is also an important target audience.