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TASS to switch to new digital platform this year — director general

Andrey Kondrashov mentioned an AI technology to allow taking "a news article from a social network and verify it, and determine where it came from geographically"

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Russia's TASS news agency will switch to a new digital platform that will run on artificial intelligence (AI), the agency’s Director General Andrey Kondrashov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"Very soon, this year when we celebrate our [120th] anniversary, we will switch to an absolutely new digital platform, where artificial intelligence and neural networks will automatically verify a news item. So, for instance, we will be able to take a news article from a social network and verify it, and determine where it came from geographically. For example, if the news about an incident in Russia came from Denver in the United States, it is most likely a 'red flag,'" he said.

According to the TASS director general, this platform will also serve as the largest supplier of TASS images. In this regard, he recalled that the agency's image library now amounts to nearly 55 million photos, with about 17,000 items of content being added every day.

Kondrashov also said that the platform will contain an online encyclopedia, which will include biographies of Russian officials for reference, information about companies and enterprises, as well as special projects such as ‘Return to Homeland’: a joint TASS project with Russia’s agency for international humanitarian cooperation aimed at helping Russians living abroad to return to the country. In addition, the TASS chief said that the new digital platform will host the resources of the Xinhua news agency in implementation of an agreement reached earlier.