Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia, in cooperation with the Kosovo Law Institute, the Center for the Study of Democracy and Governance (Albania), and the Academic Society of Romania, organized a workshop titled “What Will Change? What Will Artificial Intelligence Take Away from Us?”
Several media and IT experts spoke at the workshop on behalf of SCOOP Macedonia.
The workshop took place at the Hotel Sirius in Pristina and lasted for two days. It is part of the project “When Artificial Intelligence Collides with Fake News,” supported by the European Union.
Goran Lefkov, President of SCOOP Macedonia, emphasized that artificial intelligence will contribute significantly to the work of journalists, while also playing a major role in shaping the journalistic profession.
“Artificial intelligence will facilitate access to publicly available documents and simplify the use of illustrations in print journalism; however, it will also require journalists to put in greater effort to verify the documents they obtain,” Lefkov believes.
He adds that the principle of “trust everyone, but verify everything” will take on a much greater role and significance in this context.
Dr. Xhelal Neziri, former president of SCOOP Macedonia, compared artificial intelligence to the discovery of fire.
While civilization reached its current level of development thanks to fire, that same civilization has also witnessed many destructive blazes throughout history.
Other participants emphasized that fraud, as a phenomenon, has always existed and will continue to exist, but that artificial intelligence could amplify it manifold. While it will have a positive impact on development, it could—especially in the early stages, before it is regulated—also lead to serious consequences.
Investigative journalist Bojan Blazhevski, speaking from Pristina, urged that Sweden’s example in combating fake news be followed, and called for the establishment of a societal infrastructure to fight against it.
Around 30 experts from the three countries participated in the workshop, which was opened by Nikola Gaon, spokesperson for the European Union Delegation to Kosovo.
