The role of state media organizations in combating fake news is among the keys to address disinformation in the age of social media and artificial intelligence.
University of the Philippines professor Rachel Khan pointed this out Saturday during the National Information Summit here, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) is not reliable.
While artificial intelligence can be an effective tool to make things work easier for communicators, Khan said it should be used with caution as human intelligence still prevails.
“I am happy that PCO (Presidential Communication Office) is doing this. You’re looking at people using this information, recognizing the problem. I think it’s important also to discuss this with other information officers of agencies, precisely because even the relationship between the press and agencies doesn’t have to be adversarial,” she said.
In her presentation, Khan highlighted some of the shortcomings of AI, which include the lack of critical thinking, limited context of understanding, bias in training data, inability to verify information and difficulty in handling nuances and tone.
On the other hand, she said AI can be used to speed up news production, aid in journalistic investigation, leverage the content in the archives, understand audiences’ wants and needs, and optimize engagement and subscriptions.
"It’s about intent. Intent is the problem. It can harm. If you’re seeking harm, you know that that’s what we need to detect,” she said.
In addition, Gemma Mendoza, digital strategy head of an online news organization, highlighted the importance of fact-checking, media literacy and collaboration to address disinformation.
She said fighting fake news should be a collaborative effort among members of the media community.
"It’s great that we are doing this. We really welcome it and looking forward to it,” she said.
She added that it is cheaper to make fake news and deepfakes or digitally-manipulative videos to maliciously spread false information, compared to acquiring equipment and applications that will assess these. (PNA)
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