It was a great pleasure for Pilot4dev Director Pascaline Gaborit to present the project @AI4DEBUNK on #AI and #Disinformation jointly with @internews Ukraine at the event 'Political Education and Digital technologies. Reflect EU &US ' hosted by MEP Gaby Bischoff at the EU Parliament. A great debate with international students and panelists.

On the 5^th of September, Pilot4dev hosted a successful multi-stakeholders group meeting as part of the AI4DEBUNK project. The primary aim of this meeting was to bring together key stakeholders working on disinformation to gather valuable suggestions for the implementation of our innovative tool designed to combat misinformation.

Riga, March 12-13, 2024 — The picturesque city of Riga played host to the groundbreaking kick-off event of the AI4Debunk project, an initiative funded by the European Union aimed at harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to combat misinformation. This two-day event marked the beginning of a concerted effort to develop innovative solutions that can detect, analyze, and debunk false information, thereby safeguarding public discourse and democratic processes.

In early March 2024, the vibrant city of Makassar served as the gathering ground for leading minds in urban development and resilience, hosting the esteemed panel of experts for the Climate Resilient and Inclusive Cities (CRIC) project. Among the attendees were Dr. Pascaline Gaborit, representing Pilot4dev, and Prof. Youssef Diab from the Université Gustave Eiffel (UGE), who led a compelling training session focused on Disaster Risk Management, and Early Warning Systems with a particular emphasis on flood scenarios.

The CRIC project, known for its pivotal role in fostering sustainable urban development and resilience, provided the perfect backdrop for this engaging workshop. Over the course of three days, from March 5th to 7th, 2024, Pilot4dev not only participated in insightful discussions but also actively contributed to the capacity building of city representatives through hands-on training.

A Deep Dive into Disaster Risk Management
The training session, crafted and delivered by Dr. Gaborit and Prof. Diab, was meticulously designed to address the pressing challenges of disaster risk in urban settings. The focus on flood scenarios was particularly relevant, given the increasing frequency and intensity of such events in cities around the globe. Through a blend of theoretical insights and practical exercises, the workshop illuminated the various facets of disaster risk management, from early warning systems to post-disaster recovery and resilience building.What set this training apart was its interactive nature. Participants, ranging from city planners to local government officials, were not mere spectators but active contributors to the learning process. The use of realistic scenarios allowed for a hands-on approach to understanding the complexities of disaster management and the importance of proactive planning.

PILOT4DEV invites you to an "Online workshop on Climate Adaptation and the Preservation and Restoration of Coastal Ecosystems."  The workshop focuses on preserving and restoring marine coastal ecosystems, specifically on the pioneering efforts of the Adapt’ Island project.

This 2^nd online workshop will coincide with the occasion of the EU Belgian Presidency Summit on Climate Adaptation and Climate Resilience. The event will be a side event to the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union Climate Summit Europe 2024: Wallonia Summit (scce24wallonie.eu/en/)

10 January, 2024 – To revolutionize the fight against disinformation, a four-year innovation action, AI4Debunk, has been launched this January. Funded by the European Union (EU) through the Horizon Europe Programme, the project brings together an interdisciplinary consortium of 13 partner entities from eight countries towards a shared mission: to support trustworthy online activity by providing citizens with human-centered AI-powered tools. In recent years, the proliferation of disinformation has become a major issue across Europe. The pervasive use of the internet and social media has facilitated the spread of fake news and propaganda, heavily influencing public opinion, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this context, a synergistic combination of human efforts and sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) tools is the only sustainable way to effectively combat the “infodemic” and battle of narratives we currently face. As stated by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission: “AI is already changing our everyday lives. And this is just the beginning. Used wisely and widely, AI promises huge benefits to our economy and society.”

As part of the LIFE ADAPT’ISLAND project, we are organizing mini workshops in Brussels in collaboration with our partners GUADELOUPE PORT CARAIBES and URAPEG-FNE.

The second one took place on November 30th at the Press Club in Brussels, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Pilot4dev, URAPEG and Guadeloupe Port Caraïbes are pleased to invite you to the workshop

'The preservation and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems using nature based solutions'

On Thursday November 30^th- 4.00 pm- 6.00 pm- Online and on site at the Press Club Brussels Europe- 

Registration:  The event will be followed by a drink.  

Pilot4dev is pleased to be a partner of the project AI4DEBUNK recently approved by the EC Research program Horizon Europe and led by the university of Riga. It gathers 13 partners from different EU countries and a media partner from Ukraine. The project will officially start in 2024 and run over a period of 4 years. 

AI4Deunk aims to develop 4 human-centered AI-powered interfaces: a web plug-in, a collaborative platform, a smartphone app, and an AR interface. All these solutions will be built upon a "debunking" API.

To develop such an API, AI4Debunk will focus on 2 peculiar disinformation topics: the war in Ukraine and disinformation related to climate change. By deeply analysing these case studies thanks to sociological experts (targets groups, sources, way of diffusion...), we will map disinformation contents on knowledge graphs, and compare them to existing databases thanks to AI methods such as NLP. These knowledge graphs will be the skeleton of our technical work: one will be multimodal meaning that all types of modalities (written content, image, video) will be directly embedded, while the monomodal will be only about written content (the different modalities will be previously embedded into written content).

Then debunking modules will be developed, for each type of modality, based on AI and ML methods that could detect and examine questionable content, by comparing it to the context extracted from the knowledge graphs. RNN, CNN, multi-modal language interpretation, and transformers methods will be used to that extent. The goal of such modules is to give a score of fakeness, which we will call Disinofscore, for content given as input.

The API will then integrate this method and will be the bases of the 4 interfaces abovementioned. The plugin will allow people to be instantly noticed when a content they are considering is fake or true, the collaborative platform - also called Disinfopedia, will allow more proactive online users to report questionable content, that will be checked by a debunking committee chaired by a senior analyst, the app interface will allow people to check content in their everyday life.