CSIR asks partners to join fight against AI-driven fake news
The CSIR wants organisations to pool data, funding and expertise to counter AI-generated fake content, and plans to test its detection tools during the coming elections.
South Africa’s main science research body, the CSIR, has appealed to outside organisations to work with it on using technology to fight misinformation, SAnews reported on Wednesday.
The appeal follows growing worry that artificial intelligence (AI) can now produce convincing fake video, audio and images. This makes it harder for people to tell what is genuine, particularly in the run-up to elections.
A call for a wider network
Avi Moodley, a principal AI specialist who is acting head of the CSIR’s natural language processing research group, spoke at a virtual media roundtable. She said groups tackling fake news cannot work alone. Data, infrastructure, resources and funding from partners could all strengthen a joint effort, she said.
Moodley said AI has in some ways industrialised the spread of false and misleading material. It can be used to create synthetic content and to push emotionally charged stories that may sway how people see an issue. She said earlier elections did not see this on the scale likely to come.
She also spoke about the strain on ordinary people, who face a flood of content and often cannot tell what is real.
How the CSIR tracks election content
Moodley described the steps the CSIR follows during each election:
- It picks out keywords that shape election conversations.
- It gathers matching posts from social media and adds detail using its language-processing tools and other data.
- It runs the results through its systems that look for signs of misinformation and unrest.
- It shares the findings with partners and uses them for network analysis.
The results are shown on dashboards that the CSIR will present throughout the election period. It plans to share the information with partners and through public platforms, including those of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The roundtable was hosted by the CSIR together with GCIS, the government’s communication agency, and other stakeholders. It looked at fact-checking, public communication, and how science and cooperation can protect the integrity of public information.
New tools still being built
The CSIR has developed the Informed Fake News Advisor Project, which checks information against credible sources and traces where it came from. It aims to give indicators that help flag possible misinformation.
Moodley said the tool is not meant mainly for the general public. It is aimed at fact-checkers who sift through large volumes of content. The CSIR is also working on a triage system that would rank content for closer review, which could help when time is short, such as during an election.
These tools are still under development, she said. The CSIR hopes to use the coming elections to test them as it prepares for the next national elections.
The CSIR is also building technology to search audio directly, without first turning speech into text. Moodley said current efforts in the country mostly deal with text, and South Africa’s many languages make audio hard to analyse. She said the new approach could be a game-changer for mixed-format content.
What this means for readers
The tools are mainly for fact-checkers, so most people will not use them directly. Still, they may help catch false claims before they spread widely. Until then, readers should be careful with shocking videos, voice notes and images, and check them against credible sources before sharing.
This story is based on reporting by SAnews.
