Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks while he meets with Cyprus’ Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, Monday, June 17, 2024, at the State Department in Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday his department’s artificial intelligence overhaul includes testing new technology to combat foreign disinformation as part of an ambitious media monitoring and analysis project that spans the globe.
Mr. Blinken told a session with State Department workers in Foggy Bottom Friday mornnig that AI tools can help automate routine tasks, summarize and translate research, and make it possible to monitor much more media. “We have one program that we’re using that is able to basically ingest a million articles every day from around the world — to be able to do that in a couple hundred countries in over a hundred languages — and then immediately translate, synthesize and give you a clear picture of what’s happening in the information space immediately,” he said.
“Super innovative, it’s called Northstar, and was launched a couple of months ago,” Mr. Graviss interjected onstage at the State Department. “And so would encourage everybody to check that out.” Separately, the House Committee on Small Business said this year it is also investigating the center’s role in potential censorship and the “revenue interference of American small businesses by proxy.”