PRISA Media, among its informative objectives, wants to add one in line with the times: that of combating misinformation in audio and reinforcing quality journalism with verification of sources.
For this reason, it has created VerificAudio, a pioneering tool at the service of its journalists for the detection of false audio or
deepfakes
generated with synthetic voices or altered with technology.
The new solution, developed in collaboration with Google News Initiative and Minsait (Indra), is now available in the newsrooms of PRISA Media stations in Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Spain.
VerificAudio is an artificial intelligence tool that serves to combat disinformation in sound content, a growing threat caused by the advance of the latest generative technologies and which this year is expected to acquire special relevance given the exceptional situation that in 73 countries —almost half of the world's population—crucial elections for the international panorama are held.
This technology combines two advanced artificial intelligence models to detect and analyze the reliability of sound files with informative content.
Through a verification tool developed for this purpose, PRISA Media journalists can upload an audio on the VerificAudio website and immediately and accurately obtain the probability that it is false;
which, together with the traditional journalistic content verification process, will improve the detection of false news or information in audio format.
The tool, which has been co-created by the Google News Initiative and has relied on Minsait for its technological development, allows journalists double verification through two steps: identification and comparison.
Thus, if a journalist wants to identify a sound file, the tool will recognize potentially manipulated or synthetic audio thanks to its identification model developed with
machine learning
.
Additionally, if the journalist has an original audio of the person involved in the file, they can use the comparator system to detect if the voice is cloned or real.
José Gutiérrez, general director of Solutions, Digital and Technology at PRISA Media, explains: “This project that was born in Caracol Colombia and is progressively spreading to all our newsrooms, is part of PRISA's commitment to the fight against disinformation and advocates for quality journalism.
Technology has become a weapon to fight disinformation and
deepfakes
and is also a new essential tool for journalists.
We believe that with the development of artificial intelligence many opportunities are created, but also many dangers that must be faced as they are detected."
The VerificAudio project, which has a website at the service of users and listeners so that they know the tool and can send audios to the PRISA Media newsrooms, has the support of the Google News Initiative within the technology company's strategy in its commitment with journalism.
Although at the moment the tool is available to journalists from PRISA Media newsrooms in stations in Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Spain, its implementation is soon planned for EL PAÍS and the rest of PRISA newsrooms.