"AI Against Disinformation" Cluster
Disinformation has become one of the defining challenges of our time, eroding trust in institutions, polarising societies, and threatening democratic processes worldwide. To address these pressing issues, a series of cutting-edge research and innovation (R&I) initiatives has been launched, supported by the European Commission / DG Connect.
The EDMO community and its Europe-wide network of hubs have started cooperation with six European Commission co-funded research projects, which include research on AI methods for countering online disinformation.
In more detail, these projects focus on creating AI-based tools and methodologies for automated content verification, detecting manipulated media and deepfakes, and understanding the societal implications of AI in the information ecosystem. By fostering collaboration between researchers, media professionals, and verification experts, these projects aim to strengthen societal resilience against disinformation. The projects also actively support citizens by promoting critical thinking and digital literacy skills, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to identify, analyse, and counter disinformation effectively in their daily lives.
Highlights
Cluster Projects
vera.ai
vera.ai developed trustworthy AI solutions against advanced disinformation techniques, co-created with and for media professionals, and set foundations for future research in the domain of AI against disinformation and related topics. vera.ai advanced state-of-the-art AI-generated media detection across image, video, audio, and text modalities, with a strong focus on robustness, generalisation, and rapid adaptation to emerging generative models.
AI4TRUST
AI4Trust enhanced the work of human fact-checkers through an automated platform for monitoring social and news media using advanced AI-based technologies. The project built on proven tools and technologies, including an observatory that gathered COVID-19 disinformation, a clickbait content analyser and a “Verdict Generator” that can aid in debunking disinformation.
TITAN
TITAN created an AI-based citizen coaching ecosystem against disinformation. It was delivered through an intelligent chatbot that guides citizens in probing the factual correctness and reliability of online content. The chatbot considers the citizen’s critical thinking capacity incorporating fact-checking processes and tools, emphasising a human-centred approach.
AI4MEDIA
AI4Media established a Centre of Excellence on AI research and engaged with a wide network of researchers across Europe and beyond. It focused on delivering the next generation of core AI advances and training to serve the media sector. At the same time it put focus on ensuring that the European values of ethical and trustworthy AI are embedded in future AI deployments.
AI-CODE
AI-CODE is developing generative-AI-based solutions dedicated to media professionals. It reflects on rapid technological advancement not only in the area of generative AI but also in next-generation social media, e.g. AI-based decentralized and immersive virtual environments. The project aims to provide media professionals with novel AI-based services to coach them how to work in emerging digital environments and how to utilize generative AI effectively and credibly.
AI4DEBUNK
AI4Debunk will develop 4 human-centred AI-powered interfaces: a web plug-in, a collaborative platform, a smartphone app, and an AR interface. The web plugin will notify citizens when they view already debunked content; the collaborative Disinfopedia platform will allow citizens to report questionable content; the phone app will support disinformation verification on mobiles; the AR interface will support citizens in the next generation social media environments.
ELLIOT
ELLIOT aims to develop the next generation of open and trustworthy multimodal generalist foundation models while also examining relevant legal and ethical aspects. In the context of one of the use cases, these models will be used for live fact-checking during broadcasts, debates, and rapidly evolving news situations by enabling detection of factual claims as they are spoken, comparison against trusted sources, and provision of timely, explainable signals to newsroom professionals.
Joint Initiatives and Available AI-Powered Tools
Researchers from these projects usually join forces for publications and events which will be announced in this page.
Verification professionals and disinformation researchers from the EDMO community and beyond can already benefit from some AI-powered image, video, and text verification tools released by these projects:
