Fujitsu chosen to help solving social issues caused by fake news

Fujitsu chosen to help solving social issues caused by fake news

Chosen in the Key and Advanced Technology R&D through Cross Community Collaboration Program

Fujitsu Limited

Kawasaki, July 19, 2024

Fujitsu today announced that it has been selected by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization ("NEDO"), through NEDO's public request for proposals to develop technologies to analyze disinformation ⁽¹⁾. The scope of this mission is to begin R&D to detect and evaluate disinformation, as well as to create a system for this purpose. This project is part of the Key and Advanced Technology R&D through Cross Community Collaboration Program ("K Program") ⁽²⁾, which was established through the collaboration of Japan's Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and other related ministries, to strengthen and drive economic security. The related budget for this project will be 6 billion yen and is scheduled to run from 2024 through 2027.

Background

Recently, the distribution of disinformation through generative AI and synthetic content on the internet has become a societal issue. Until now, there have been individual studies on technologies that detect intentional disinformation using deepfakes in the form of written sentences, images, audio, and video in order to prevent its spread. Fujitsu was commissioned with this project and will begin R&D to create a comprehensive system to take measures against disinformation that detects and evaluates deception from multiple sources and provides a comprehensive analysis of the disinformation.

Overview

To determine the authenticity of information, this project's system for counter-disinformation will analyze the content and determines whether or not the written sentences, images, audio, and video are created by generative AI. In addition, the endorsement graph ⁽³⁾ of the system, which connects the relationships between various evidences, will support to determine the authenticity of the information by analyzing the consistencies and inconsistencies between them. It will also evaluate the societal impact of the disinformation. In this project, Fujitsu will define the requirements for each use case of the system for public and private demand. By combining the following four features, Fujitsu will create a system for counter-disinformation.

• Feature 1: Analysis of information by media type and detection of disinformation
  Develop a technology to break down and extract sentences, images, video, and audio media included in social media posts by the type of media, analyze the content, and use the results as an evidence, as well as determine whether they are fakes created by generative AI.
• Feature 2: Management of evidences and endorsement
  Create a system to manage a graph out of various evidences of information from the internet extracted through feature 1.
• Feature 3: Support for comprehensive authenticity determination
  Develop a technology that analyzes the consistency and inconsistencies of evidence tied to information from large language models (LLM) and supports to identify if the information is true or false.
• Feature 4: Evaluation of disinformation impact
  Implement a technology to analyze the characteristics of the disinformation, and to evaluate the scale that it has spread.

Fujitsu will combine these technologies and systematizes the whole.

Future Plans

With these technologies Fujitsu will continue to develop a societal infrastructure for counter-disinformation to maintain stable and autonomous economic activities, despite the growing concern regarding disinformation. The aim is to support a society in which everyone can safely and securely use the internet. Through NEDO, the results of this project will lead to the creation of new industries and the strengthening of international competitiveness, thereby contributing to securing the indispensability of Japan and enhancing its superiority. Fujitsu provides its customers and society with value that contributes to the development of a digital society, which is one of its materialities to create a reliable digital society that balances global prosperity and stability.

• [1]
  Key and Advanced Technology R&D through Cross Community Collaboration Program Press Release regarding the Key and Advanced Technology R&D through Cross Community Collaboration/Development of Disinformation Analysis Technology (K Program) (in Japanese) :
  https://www.nedo.go.jp/koubo/CD2_100359.html
• [2]
  Key and Advanced Technology R&D through Cross Community Collaboration Program (K Program) (in Japanese) :
  https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/anzen_anshin/kprogram.html
• [3]
  Endorsement graph :
  Information added to the target information that serves as the basis for authenticity judgment, such as the sender (person or organization and its attributes), location, and date.

Related Links

• Developed an endorsement graph, which is important for building trust between organizations, as a key function of the Trustable Internet and exhibited it at the Internet Standards Conference IETF 116 Yokohama (Press release March 20, 2023) (in Japanese)
• Fujitsu, Keio Research Institute at SFC lay foundation for a Trustable Internet (Press release, October 13, 2022)

Fujitsu's Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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