Context
In today’s hyper-connected and digital world, democracies need to pay attention to their founding principles including the right to report the news freely, which is often regarded as the fourth pillar of democracy. Once taken for granted as a cornerstone of democracy, free and independent media has a special emphasis on public media such as RTVE. This continues to be a key service to guarantee free, independent, useful, reliable, true, objective, pluralistic and transparent information, so that all member of society can make uninfluenced and well-informed decisions.
Objectives
The aim of RTVE’s electoral coverage project with artificial intelligence is to ensure access to information by everyone, regardless of where they live or if they suffer from visual disabilities. That is as relevant as the election results, based on official data. More specifically, the goal of the project is to obtain an AI-based tool that allows for the automatic drafting of reliable, useful, coherent and informative texts based on election results. To this end, coverage of the elections in Spain in 2023 has been carried out, specifically in municipalities with fewer than 1 000 inhabitants, although the technology used allows for total coverage in terms of population and municipalities, for example.
The aim, as a public service, is to guarantee that no one is left without the right of access to information. In this case it relates to such an important issue as the voting and results of the elections that shape the different institutions that governing our countries.
Implementation
The project uses AI to generate written and audio content for the coverage of elections in small municipalities in Spain. The content is generated using official election results to avoid manipulation, and the AI is trained and supervised by RTVE professionals to ensure its quality. The project can be used to cover any election for which official data is available, and it can also be used to assist RTVE professionals in their work.
The figures of any election in terms of numbers and size, are enormous. Even if we can count on a large number of professionals, it is impossible to reach everything – all territories – and provide all citizens with information. This is where AI comes in and where RTVE is applying it, interpreting and transforming official election results into news items. It can also generate synthetic voices to read the news to people with disabilities. RTVE is also working with the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind to ensure that the project is accessible.