The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has called on partners to collaborate with it in using technology to combat misinformation.
The call comes as artificial intelligence (AI) transforms how information is created, shared and consumed.
Increasingly sophisticated AI-generated videos, audio and images are making it harder to distinguish authentic content from misleading or fabricated information, raising concerns about the spread of misinformation and disinformation, particularly during elections.
CSIR Acting Research Group Leader for Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Principal AI Specialist Avi Moodley said organisations tackling misinformation and fake news cannot afford to work in isolation.
“The challenge is enormous. Whether it is data, infrastructure, resources or funding, all these elements can make a significant difference to our coordinated efforts. We would welcome your participation in strengthening and expanding this network,” Moodley said on Wednesday during a virtual media roundtable to explore these challenges and their implications for the electoral information environment.
Moodley said the sheer volume of available content makes it difficult for people to determine whether the information they receive can be trusted.
“You do not know what is real and what is AI-generated. If we, as researchers, experience this fatigue when analysing information and data, can you imagine what ordinary South Africans are experiencing when they are overwhelmed with information and are uncertain about what is real or fake?” Moodley said.
She said advances in AI have, to some extent, industrialised the spread of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation — collectively known as information disorder.
“AI can be used to create synthetic content, develop and amplify emotionally charged narratives, and produce material that could potentially manipulate perceptions in specific contexts.
“The flooding of the information ecosystem with large volumes of content has created an unprecedented environment. We have not seen this phenomenon in previous elections to the extent that we are likely to experience it in the future.
“Our response, as organisations working to combat misinformation, therefore needs to be coordinated because we cannot address these challenges in isolation,” Moodley said.
To respond to these challenges, Moodley said the CSIR follows a well-defined process during each election.
“We begin by identifying keywords that shape election-related discourse. We then collect relevant information from social media platforms and enrich it using our natural language processing (NLP) services, together with additional data.
“This enriched information is processed through our misinformation and unrest detection systems to identify potential warning signals. The information can also be used for network analysis and shared with partners who require access to relevant data,” Moodley said.
The findings are then incorporated into dashboards that the CSIR will showcase throughout the election period.
The CSIR aims to share this information widely with its partners and through public dissemination platforms, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), during the election period.
The media roundtable was hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, in partnership with the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and other key stakeholders.
The discussion focused on the role of fact-checking and public communication in countering misinformation and disinformation, and how science, technology and collaboration among stakeholders can help safeguard the integrity of public information.
Informed Fake News Advisor Project
The CSIR has developed the Informed Fake News Advisor Project to evaluate information, compare it with credible sources and trace its origin.
The project aims to provide indicators that help identify and filter potential misinformation.
“This technology is not necessarily intended for everyday use by ordinary South Africans. Rather, it could benefit fact-checkers who are on the front lines, working through large volumes of information to identify potentially problematic content that requires further investigation and reporting.
“We are also working on developing an information triage system that takes the available information, together with variables and inputs generated by the Informed Fake News Advisor, and helps prioritise content for further assessment,” Moodley said.
Moodley said the triage system would help the CSIR prioritise information requiring urgent attention in time-sensitive situations, such as elections.
“This technology is still a work in progress. We are currently looking at using the upcoming elections as an opportunity to test some of these technologies so that we can strengthen our capabilities as we move from the local government elections towards the next national elections,” Moodley said.
Audio search technology
The CSIR is also developing technology to search audio content, extending its work beyond text-based information.
“Currently, efforts to combat misinformation in the country are largely limited to processing text-based information. When it comes to audio, we face challenges arising from South Africa's linguistic diversity, including the wide range of languages spoken in the country and the limitations of converting audio content into text for analysis.
“We are therefore developing technology that bypasses the need for this conversion and allows us to search audio content quickly and efficiently. We anticipate that this could be a game-changer in addressing multimodal content, which is becoming increasingly prevalent with the rise of AI,” she said. -SAnews.gov.za
