Portuguese students develop AI system to accelerate facts checking

A group of students at Lisbon’s Higher Technical Institute (IST) have developed an artificial intelligence mechanism that aims to speed up fact checking and combatting disinformation that was presented in Montreal, Canada on Thursday.

The model in question “seeks to reduce the time needed to evaluate content which has a potential to be fake news”, speeding up the fact checking of digital content to help journalists combat disinformation”, states the institute in a communiqué.

The AI system automatically carries out all of the fact checking process that would normally be done manually by reporters, making only the identification of the statement to be proven necessary.

The user has access to all the steps that are taken to gather evidence, the sources used in the compilation of information, and a verdict based on that information, with the model also generating an article explaining the reasons that have led to the verdict in question.

“The system was created in a way that enhances the capacity of professional journalists and not replace them”, says the system’s author Filipe Altoe (Pictured with colleagues far right) who has a doctorate in IT and computer engineering.