European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to Release AI Tech For Coronavirus Fact-Checkers

From the EC’s Joint Research Center:

In the fight against coronavirus disinformation, the JRC has announced plans to make innovative AI text mining software open-source and available for the fact-checking community.

The JRC-developed tools use AI technology to automatically identify and monitor disinformation, from flagging fake news to tracking dodgy sources. By doing so they can help to keep the facts straight on coronavirus, which is essential to an effective public health response.

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The Misinfo Classifier detects fake news by measuring the ‘shrillness’ of language in a news article, using a machine-learning algorithm developed by the JRC. There is no such thing as a 100% detection rate for fake news, but the JRC’s machine learning algorithm has about an 80% hit rate. This is comparable to the state of the art right now.

The tool is currently being used by the Commission and European Parliament and will be made available to reputable fact-checking organisations in the coming weeks, so that experts can more easily identify possible fake news and debunk the claims being made.

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The Epidemics Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) platform is a collaboration between the WHO and the JRC based on the JRC’s Europe Media Monitor Medical Information System (MEDISYS) tool that is collating up to 120,000 articles per day related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the Complete Announcement

See Also: Coronavirus: EU Strengthens Action to Tackle Disinformation (via Europa.eu)

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