AI Developers Urged To Create Apps That Detect Fake News, Says Don

In a passionate call that echoed through the halls of the West Africa Broadcast Media Academy (WABMA), Dr. Tope Ojeme  a lecturer at Baze University and seasoned media practitioner has urged Artificial Intelligence developers to rise to the challenge of Africa’s digital age by building tools that can detect fake news and uproot unethical media practices in Nigeria and across the continent.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of WABMA’s Second Quarter Courses in Abuja, Ojeme delivered a paper titled “Beyond Debunking: Building a Culture of Media Integrity in Africa’s Next Century”, where he warned that unchecked misinformation could warp the very DNA of African societies.

“We must empower African developers, engineers, and creators to build AI-powered fact-checking plugins for newsrooms,” he said. “Even blockchain-based archives to safeguard journalistic content from tampering will play a pivotal role.”

Ojeme painted a stark picture of a future where falsehoods could become gospel, where fake cures might go viral and conspiracy theories taught in classrooms. Without swift and smart action, he warned, deepfakes could distort truth, bots could hijack elections, and trust the bedrock of democratic life could crumble like dust in the wind.

“Technology created this firestorm,” he noted, “but it also holds the tools to extinguish it. We must design algorithms that elevate verified information and expose forgeries.”

He didn’t stop at code and computation. Ojeme also called for structural reforms from truth desks in media houses to legal shields for truth-telling journalists forming what he described as “ecosystems of integrity.”

“We are living in an age of noise,” he declared, “where the loudest microphone commands attention, speed supersedes sense, and volume overwhelms value.”

Meanwhile, WABMA Rector Dr. Ken Okere reiterated the academy’s vision to train not just capable media professionals, but responsible ones aware of the power their words wield. As part of the event, certificates were presented to graduating participants and winners of the DebunkIt Challenge an initiative launched in April 2022, now marking its 100th edition.

Dr. Ojeme’s call resounds like a bell across Africa’s media and tech landscape a challenge to turn keyboards into compasses and algorithms into shields, safeguarding a fragile, flickering truth in the age of distortion.