'AI Against Disinformation' cluster
Disinformation has become one of the defining challenges of our time, eroding trust in institutions, polarising societies, and threatening democratic processes worldwide. To address these pressing issues, a series of cutting-edge research and innovation (R&I) initiatives has been launched, supported by the European Commission / DG Connect.
These projects focus on creating AI-based tools and methodologies for automated content verification, detecting manipulated media and deepfakes, and understanding the societal implications of AI in the information ecosystem. By fostering collaboration between researchers, media professionals, and verification experts, these projects aim to strengthen societal resilience against disinformation. The projects also actively support citizens by promoting critical thinking and digital literacy skills, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to identify, analyse, and counter disinformation effectively in their daily lives.
HIGHLIGHTS

Event | Meet the Future of AI: Generative AI and Democracy
On 19 June 2024, six European-funded projects focused on AI and disinformation, alongside the European Commission, hosted the event "Meet the Future of AI - Generative AI and Democracy" in Brussels. The gathering brought together approximately 60 participants to explore the critical interplay between AI and democratic processes, presenting innovative AI-powered solutions to counter disinformation and fostering insightful discussions.

White Paper | Generative AI and Disinformation: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities
The EU co-funded projects TITAN, AI4Media, AI4Trust and vera.ai have joined forces: participants of the four Horizon Europe projects co-wrote a White Paper that takes a look at past and present developments and raises issues for the future in this highly relevant field.

Event | Meet the Future of AI: Countering Sophisticated & Advanced Disinformation
On 29 June 2023, Horizon Europe research projects AI4Media, AI4Trust, TITAN, and veraAI – together with the European Commission – welcomed about 90 participants on-site at VRT in Brussels for the event "Meet the Future of AI: Countering Sophisticated & Advanced Disinformation". During the day, various aspects surrounding the development and use of Artificial Intelligence and its relationship to the disinformation sphere were discussed and showcased.
Cluster projects

veraAI
veraAI develops tools for detecting AI-generated content and employs novel AI and network science-based methods to assist verification professionals. First results include AI methods and tools for detecting local manipulations in synthetic images, analysing traces left by generative AI on created images, deepfake detection of persons of interest, and generation and detection of synthetic text using language models.

AI4Trust
AI4Trust aims to enhance the work of human fact-checkers through automated platform monitoring of social and news media using advanced AI-based technologies. The project is building on proven tools and technologies, including an observatory that gathered COVID-19 disinformation, a clickbait content analyser and a “Verdict Generator” that could aid in debunking disinformation.

TITAN
TITAN aims to create an AI-based citizen coaching ecosystem against disinformation. It will be delivered through an intelligent chatbot that guides citizens in probing the factual correctness and reliability of online content. The chatbot would consider the citizen’s critical thinking capacity, incorporate fact-checking processes and tools, and emphasise a human-centred approach.

AI4Media
AI4Media is 4-year project, which aims to establish a Centre of Excellence on AI research and engage with a wide network of researchers across Europe and beyond. It focuses on delivering the next generation of core AI advances and training to serve the media sector. At the same time it puts focus on ensuring that the European values of ethical and trustworthy AI are embedded in future AI deployments.

AI-CODE
AI-CODE is developing generative-AI-based solutions dedicated to media professionals. It reflects on rapid technological advancement not only in the area of generative AI but also in next-generation social media, e.g. AI-based decentralized and immersive virtual environments. The project aims to provide media professionals with novel AI-based services to coach them how to work in emerging digital environments and how to utilize generative AI effectively and credibly.

AI4Debunk
AI4Debunk will develop 4 human-centred AI-powered interfaces: a web plug-in, a collaborative platform, a smartphone app, and an AR interface. The web plugin will notify citizens when they view already debunked content; the collaborative Disinfopedia platform will allow citizens to report questionable content; the phone app will support disinformation verification on mobiles; the AR interface will support citizens in the next generation social media environments.

This work has been co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe veraAI project, Grant Agreement number 101070093, the UK’s innovation agency (Innovate UK) grant 10039055, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 22.00245; TITAN project (Grant Agreement number 101070658); AI4Media project, Grant Agreement 951911; AI4Trust project, Grant Agreement 101070190; AI-CODE project, Grant Agreement 101135437; and AI4Debunk project, Grant Agreement 101135757.