The research team at CAI, spear-headed by Pius von Däniken, recently earned second place in the yearly Checkthat! Lab competition. This event challenges AI systems to identify and handle misinformation in social media content.

This year, the task was to ascertain whether a tweet - complete with text and an image - contains a claim that requires fact-checking. Such claims pertain to verifiable facts of public interest and can potentially cause harm if misinterpreted or misrepresented.

One of the main obstacles the participants encountered was the multi-modal nature of the task. This required synthesizing information from both text and images, an on-going field of AI research.

Our participation and success in the Checkthat! Lab competition aligns with our broader involvement in the EU research project HAMiSoN. The aim of this project is to develop a holistic strategy to counter misinformation by combining various aspects of misinformation dissemination.

The team's achievement at the Checkthat! Lab competition signals a positive step forward in the ongoing effort to develop tools and strategies that can effectively combat misinformation.