QF’s AI project helps detect ‘disinformation’
24 May 2021 - 8:18
Preslav Nakov, a computer scientist at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) a member of Qatar Foundation
By Fazeena Saleem | The Peninsula
Doha: At present the World Health Organization’s main concern is fighting the pandemic, but then its secondary concern is fighting disinformation. It has raised concern over an ‘infodemic’ - information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak.
The first step to stop fake news and propaganda is to verify sources and that will help building a better internet, says Preslav Nakov, a computer scientist at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) a member of Qatar Foundation.
QF s AI project helps detect disinformation - The Peninsula Qatar thepeninsulaqatar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thepeninsulaqatar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Machine-learning project takes aim at disinformation
There’s nothing new about conspiracy theories, disinformation, and untruths in politics. What
is new is how quickly malicious actors can spread disinformation when the world is tightly connected across social networks and internet news sites. We can give up on the problem and rely on the platforms themselves to fact-check stories or posts and screen out disinformation or we can build new tools to help people identify disinformation as soon as it crosses their screens.
Preslav Nakov is a computer scientist at the Qatar Computing Research Institute in Doha specializing in speech and language processing. He leads a project using machine learning to assess the reliability of media sources. That allows his team to gather news articles alongside signals about their trustworthiness and political biases, all in a Google News-like format.