February 27, 2023

Under the title “Artificial Intelligence and Fact-checking: Where Are We Today?”, and with the participation of more than 240 participants via Zoom and 500 viewers on Facebook, the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) from ARIJ hosted on February 27, 2023, the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Fathm: Tom Trewinard and Lawrence Frickamp, Founder of Future Journalism Today at the second webinar of SA7 Project in 2023. The project is part of the Qarib program,  implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).

Moderated by the Google News Initiative Officer at the ARIJ team, Hager Hisham, in a two-hour interactive session, the trainers provided important information related to artificial intelligence and its current importance in developing the fact-checking process. The trainers began the session with a short five-question quiz to distinguish between sentences written by humans and machines. 

The instructors’ explanation was full of case studies and examples from around the world of artificial intelligence and how it was applied. They discussed in detail the features of the Chat GPT, and participants interacted positively with the session by asking many detailed and important questions such as videos produced by Deep Fake and when it is important to use Chat GPT and the accuracy of its answers.

Mohammed El-Moussaoui, an independent journalist from Iraq, expressed the session’s relevance for his experience in illustrating the methodology for fact-checking and examining  images using artificial intelligence techniques.

Sana Al-Asaad; a fact-checker from Jordan, explained the new knowledge she gained in applying artificial intelligence and where it will reach in the future intersecting with fact-checking.

The SA7 project aims to enhance the best practices, methodologies and tools for fact-checking in the Arab region, specifically in 4 countries facing political, economic and security challenges where the  public confidence is declining in the media: Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq.