Mexico City, May 17 (EFE).- The Museum of Lies, a virtual information verification project led by the Mexican media outlet Animal Político, uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to illustrate the mental image of false news that is created consumers of this type of information.
Coronavirus detected by bluetooth, euthanasia in depressed children, the decision of the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) not to get vaccinated or the eruption of a volcano in Iztapalapa (in the east of Mexico City) are some of the news false that Animal Político has denied through “El Sabueso” -the fact-check space of this medium- and that visitors to this museum will be able to see illustrated.
Animal Político, due to its “vocation of service”, described the director of the outlet, Daniel Moreno, developed this virtual museum together with Weber Shandwick (WS) and McCann Mexico.
Jorge Camargo, director of Public Affairs and Crisis at WS, explained in an interview with EFE that his interest in the verification work and his concern about the spread of false information was added to the Mexican context which, he said, according to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico has the characteristics for false information to be built.
“There are three, that there is someone’s will to build them, that there is infrastructure and knowledge for it and the vulnerability of the citizen who receives information and shares it through social networks,” he said.
For this reason, he explained that WS and McCann Mexico contacted the media outlet and raised the possibility of using the false information “in reverse” through their verifications to be able to establish with AI which are “the closest images to what is the mental image” of a person who consumes “fake news”.
After the AI processes the information, digital artists give the images that finishing touch.
“That we can make virtuous use and counteract with AI those deceptions that are built for the purpose of manipulation and that people know that they are facing false truths. We think it’s provocative to use art as a way to show the extent to which AI can distort reality when misused,” she added.
The main objective, Moreno added, is to convey to the audience what lies mean in their daily life, how lies end up limiting the ability to make decisions with full freedom, and how reality gradually becomes distorted.
Both agreed that AI is not going to replace journalists and that it is still something that is just entering the profession, but they assured that it can be used in this case as an awareness tool and can be a tool for the certainty of reports. citizens, who through a chat can send information that they consider to be of doubtful veracity and Animal Político will verify it and a new work will be created that will be exhibited in the Museum of Lies.
