Media must verify AI content: NCC

Accuracy:
The NCC has ordered SET News and Formosa News to improve their coverage on election day after irregularities were discovered in the November 26 ballot count.

• Sherry Shan / Staff Writer

The National Communications Commission (NCC) announced yesterday that broadcast media should verify the authenticity of information before broadcasting it, including content created using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI)-generated applications. said there is.

While the Ministry of Digital and the National Science and Technology Council are responsible for developing certification mechanisms for AI applications, other government agencies are also concerned about how the evolution of AI may affect the businesses they oversee and how they can help. It is enforceable enough to meet the challenges posed by technology that require government agencies to study whether there are laws to which they are responsible.

“Broadcast media may use AI-generated images and content. We have to comply,” Xie Peiying, deputy director of the NCC’s legal department, told reporters. She is at the committee’s weekly press conference.

Carriers are using AI to filter fraudulent calls, they said.

“In the long term, we may consider amending broadcasting regulations, the Telecommunications Control Act (the Telegraph Control Act), or issuing directives to guide the use of AI-generated applications, but before doing so, We need to identify what the main problem is,” said Mr. Xie.

Controversies caused by AI-generated applications will continue to be addressed after the commission receives complaints from viewers, she added.

Separately, SET News and Formosa News were instructed to improve their coverage on Election Day following the discovery of gross irregularities in voter count monitoring during last November’s 26 9-1 election. .

In its coverage of the Pingtung county governor election, SET News mistakenly swapped the votes won by then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Zhou Chunmei and then-Chinese Kuomintang (Kuomintang) candidate Su Qingquan. Su Qingquan) and Chen Jinshuo, a senior expert at the NCC Broadcasting and Content Department, said.

Due to the time lag involved in switching to the Central Election Commission’s voting system, Ms. Su’s votes appeared to surge at first and taper off toward the end of the election, she said.

SET News corrected the error during a special news program on Election Day, she said.

She said Formosa News had been rigged in its coverage of the Taipei mayoral election, and then-DPP candidate Chen Shi-chung never got more votes than then-KMT candidate Jiang Wan-an.

According to Formosa News, some of the volunteers were supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party candidate and did not regularly check the number of votes received by Chiang Kai-shek.

Two news channels have been instructed to address the issue, according to NCC vice-president and public relations officer Wong Po-tung.

“We should report vote counts based on valid sources and explain where and how we will get the voting data before the ballot counting begins,” Wong said.

Both companies must come up with specific plans for remediation in the wake of the incident, and have their plans reviewed by their respective ethics committees before being uploaded online, he said.

“SET News should cover election news and strive to be accurate when writing headlines,” Wong said. “Certain measures need to be adopted for vote tallying systems and remedial procedures revised. This incident should be used as a training example for news departments.”

“Formosa News needs to keep records of votes, establish procedures for counting and reporting votes, strengthen employee training, and avoid significant delays in reporting votes,” he said. Stated.