site.btaAI Tool to Help Assess Veracity, Debunk Fake News

A discussion on artificial intelligence and fake news, and a presentation of the project AI4Debunk - how artificial intelligence can help against fake news, took place at the Union of Bulgarian Journalists here on Monday. The discussion was organized by the media outlet Eurastiv-Bulgaria, who are participating in AI4Debunk - a four-year project funded by the Horizon Europe programme, whose goal is to fight fake news and disinformation. An  international consortium from eight countries is involved in the project, which is in its first year.

Kalina Angelova - a junior journalist and translator, who is part of Eurastiv-Bulgaria's team said  the main idea of the project is to develop a technological tool that is accessible to the public, as accessibility is one of the problems, in general, of these types of software. This will allow it to be used more easily by people in the industry, ordinary people, students, even children. "This tool can prove whether a news story is fake or what the falsity percentage of a news story is from one to ten, to determine whether a news story is similar to other news stories that are largely determined to be fake, because currently fake news is rarely 100 percent fake. The trend is very different now, not like it was at the beginning of the disinformation wave. Now we are talking about detailed disinformation messages rather than 100 percent fake news,'' Kalina Angelova explained. She added that the tool being developed under the project will also be able to indicate whether an image or video is fake, which she said is a problem even for people who are not encountering disinformation messages for the first time, especially when they are well-detailed. "I'm glad that Bulgaria is finding a place on this European map and we, and our colleagues, are part of a bigger family of people working together with one goal'', she said

During the event the expectations of the project were discussed. Journalist Georgi Gotev, who is the publisher of the Euractiv-Bulgaria website, briefly talked about the media's work.

Georgi Gotev and Kalina Angelova emphasized that the project will rely heavily on the fact-checking method to assess the falsity of news.

The project consortium includes universities, research organisations, NGOs, foundations, public companies, industry representatives, small medium enterprises and Internews Ukraine and Euractiv-Bulgaria.The lead organisation is the University of Latvia.

During the discussion the participants had the opportunity to share their personal beliefs about misinformation, fake news and their expectations for the project.