Japan consortium developing misinformation-fighting AI model

Japan Today

a day ago

A Japanese consortium involving Fujitsu Ltd is developing a fact-checking platform using artificial intelligence, seeking to counter the type of online misinformation often seen during disasters and around elections.
The group of nine organizations -- including the National Institute of Informatics, NEC Corp and academic institutions -- aims to complete the system by the end of fiscal 2025. The AI will analyze, collect supporting data and assess the authenticity of information online.
"It involves lots of checking when you want to ascertain truth on your own, but the system could help us make quick judgments," said Dai Yamamoto, a senior project director at Fujitsu.
In late May, Yamamoto tried the system during its development, entering the statement, "A group of foreign thieves went to quake-hit areas immediately after the Noto earthquake," and asking it to verify.
A few seconds later, a message judging the statement as "False" popped up.
The system backed its assessment with a newspaper article, saying it found information that contradicted the claim. It also concluded the reliability of the news organization that published the report was "high."
The system, which uses a large language model specializing in fighting false information, is being developed with 6 billion yen in funding provided by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, a government agency.
Using the platform, even "deepfakes" -- images and videos featuring real people but created by AI -- can be detected as it spots characteristics that tend to be overlooked, according to the developers.
The move comes as concerns grow about the dissemination of online disinformation and misinformation, such as fake videos of disasters, and their negative impact at times of crisis.
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