Punta del Este, Uruguay (May 3, 2022) - The Inter American Press Association is presenting today, during the World Press Freedom Day, its artificial intelligence tool to monitor obstacles and attacks against press freedom in the Americas, "to safeguard and guarantee the work of independent journalism."
The IAPA President Jorge Canahuati announced that the SIP Bot, or IAPA Bot, is a brand new tool that "will allow us a more efficient and real-time scrutiny of press freedom violations."
Canahuati, CEO of Grupo Opsa of Honduras, added: "We are very excited, after fighting for more than 80 years, to have a tool that will allow us to be more effective in our mission to protect and guarantee the work of free and independent journalism."
The IAPA Bot has six main menus, including a denunciations button and a heat map that allows seeing in real-time the facts that are affecting the climate of press freedom. The tool tracks information published on Google News and Twitter and selects stories, press releases, and complaints from the IAPA. In addition, it has a daily summary of the most critical actions and aggressions against journalists and the media.
Carlos Jornet, chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said the IAPA Bot would help the institution to reinforce the biannual press freedom reports and the Chapultepec Index. It would also offer journalists and users "a fast and efficient way to file complaints."
Canahuati and Jornet said that SIP Bot would be in a state of "permanent construction" as the evolution of artificial intelligence allows. Nevertheless, they were enthusiastic that "its use will allow the tool to learn and become increasingly powerful and useful for the media, journalists, and users."
Under the idea and leadership of IAPA, Whale & Jaguar, a Colombian startup, was in charge of the architectural and technological development of the tool. As a result, Whale & Jaguar was one of the ten finalists in a competition organized by the IAPA, accepting the challenge of creating a real-time press freedom monitoring system.
IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
