As part of Activity 1 of the EU co-funded project DeepTech for Creative Trust, Luxembourg Creative Lab (LCL)successfully hosted a series of expert focus group interviews in Luxembourg. The sessions represent a key milestone in the co-design of the project’s training programme and ethical framework, ensuring that future learning resources are firmly grounded in real professional practice and aligned with Luxembourg’s creative, educational, and digital innovation landscape.
The focus group interviews were held at LCL’s premises and brought together experts from the creative industries, education, cultural organisations, and AI-related fields. The discussions provided valuable insights into how generative AI and deepfake technologies are already affecting creative production, education, and public trust—both locally and across Europe.
Why the Luxembourg focus group matters
Luxembourg occupies a unique position at the intersection of creative industries, digital innovation, multilingual education, and European policymaking. As generative AI tools become increasingly accessible, creative professionals and educators face both new opportunities and growing responsibilities.
The Luxembourg focus group confirmed that the challenges posed by deepfakes and generative AI are not theoretical. They are already shaping daily professional practice in creative studios, classrooms, cultural institutions, and media organisations. Participants highlighted three key areas where targeted training and ethical guidance are urgently needed:
- Limited applied understanding of deepfakes and synthetic media, particularly how to recognise manipulated content beyond obvious visual cues, increasing vulnerability to misinformation and reputational risks.
- Gaps in ethical and legal literacy, especially around consent, copyright, authorship, and accountability in AI-assisted creative production—issues that are highly relevant in Luxembourg’s cross-border and multilingual working contexts.
- Growing concerns about trust, both from audiences and learners, as boundaries between authentic, AI-assisted, and fully synthetic media become increasingly blurred.
These challenges underscore the importance of developing practical, context-aware training resources that respond to real needs in the creative and educational sectors.
Expert dialogue moderated by Luxembourg Creative Lab
The focus group interviews were moderated by Luxembourg Creative Lab, building on LCL’s experience in coordinating EU-funded projects at the intersection of creativity, education, and emerging technologies. The sessions were designed as structured, practice-oriented exchanges, encouraging open dialogue while maintaining a clear focus on competence needs and professional realities.
Participants represented diverse perspectives, including creative practitioners, educators, researchers, and professionals working with digital media and innovation. This diversity enriched the discussion, allowing the group to explore how generative AI and deepfake technologies affect different roles—from content creation and teaching to institutional communication and public engagement.
Rather than focusing on technical development, the discussion centred on understanding, critical reflection, and responsible use. Participants shared concrete examples from their own work, highlighting where current skills fall short and where targeted training could have immediate impact.
What we learned: Luxembourg-specific insights shaping the training programme
The Luxembourg focus group generated insights that will directly inform the structure and content of the project’s training programme. The discussion validated the project’s overall direction while adding important nuances reflecting Luxembourg’s creative and educational ecosystem.
1) AI literacy must be contextual and multilingual
Participants stressed that AI and deepfake literacy cannot be one-size-fits-all. In Luxembourg’s multilingual environment, training materials must address how generative AI behaves differently across languages and cultural contexts. This includes awareness of translation biases, uneven language representation in training data, and the risk of misinterpretation when AI-generated content crosses linguistic boundaries.
2) Detection is as much about judgement as technology
Experts agreed that deepfake detection is not solely a technical task. While tools can assist, professionals must be trained to combine contextual analysis, source evaluation, metadata awareness, and ethical reasoning. This is particularly relevant in educational and cultural settings, where content credibility directly affects public trust.
3) Ethical and legal clarity is essential for creative professionals
Strong demand emerged for practical guidance on ethical and legal questions, including consent for voice and image use, disclosure of AI involvement, and responsibility for AI-generated outputs. Participants emphasised the need for realistic case studies reflecting everyday creative workflows rather than abstract legal theory.
4) Transparency is key to sustaining trust
The group highlighted that trust is built not only through detection but also through transparent communication. Clear disclosure of AI use, documentation of creative processes, and honest engagement with audiences were identified as essential practices for maintaining credibility in AI-enhanced creative work.
How the Luxembourg findings will be used
The insights gathered in Luxembourg will feed directly into the project’s core development work and complement findings from the partner focus groups in Germany and Bulgaria. Specifically, the results will be used to:
- Refine the training programme modules on generative AI, deepfakes, and ethical creative practice.
- Define priority competences for creative professionals, educators, and VET learners, with attention to multilingual and cross-cultural contexts.
- Develop practical learning materials, including case studies, scenarios, and exercises rooted in real professional challenges.
- Strengthen the European relevance of the programme by comparing national perspectives and identifying shared needs and contextual differences.
By anchoring the training design in local expertise, Luxembourg Creative Lab ensures that the project outputs remain both European in scope and grounded in real-world practice.
Next steps
With the focus group interviews now completed in Luxembourg, Germany, and Bulgaria, the partnership will consolidate the findings into a shared evidence base. This will support the co-design of:
- the project’s training curriculum,
- practical guidelines and case-based learning materials, and
- validation criteria for responsible AI use in creative and educational contexts.
DeepTech for Creative Trust follows a strongly collaborative approach. By working closely with experts, educators, and practitioners, the project aims to deliver training resources that are credible, practical, and ready for immediate usein classrooms, workshops, and creative organisations across Europe.
If you are interested in the project or would like to stay informed about upcoming training resources and activities, follow the updates via Luxembourg Creative Lab and the project partner channels.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Anefore asbl. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
