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Students develop platforms to combat misinformation

Reporting by Agência Brasil (EBC)Read the original at agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br

Executive Summary

Students Alice Gomes, Beatriz Vasconcellos, and Letícia de Oliveira created the Pense Bem tool to help assess the risk of disinformation spread through AI-generated content. The platform invites users to input intended publications to calculate potential escalation risks, focusing on issues such as nudity, AI generation, real people involvement, consent, and factual accuracy before publishing. The project won the HackaNAV 2026 competition and resulted in a technological immersion at NASA. The students found that disinformation significantly impacts democracy by affecting public perception during elections and outside of election periods. Alice noted that exposure to the platform improved her critical thinking about online information, while Letícia emphasized the importance of media education for understanding digital disinformation.

Facts Only

* Alice Gomes, Beatriz Vasconcellos, and Letícia de Oliveira developed the Pense Bem tool.
* The platform allows users to input publications to calculate risk escalation potential.
* Risk assessment questions include nudity/sexual material involving minors or non-consenting parties, AI generation status, presence of recognizable real people, consent, and factual representation.
* The platform classifies content based on risk and suggests adjustments to prevent disinformation.
* Fake news can affect personal and social lives, including psychology.
* The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization classified disinformation as the main global risk for 2025 and beyond.
* The group researched and interviewed teachers, students, and specialists.
* The group previously developed the Fato ou Boato platform to analyze false news links.
* Developments for Pense Bem include work on school education, games, and digital education training.

Full Take

The development of Pense Bem highlights a critical tension between technological capability and civic responsibility in the age of generative AI. The project moves beyond simply identifying false facts to establishing a framework for anticipating systemic harm, recognizing that disinformation is not merely an error but a vector for eroding democratic trust. Alice’s experience demonstrates a shift from passive consumption to active interrogation of digital information, suggesting that critical thinking can be cultivated through applied tools. However, the focus on individual content risk must connect to broader societal structures. The fact that disinformation is framed as the primary global risk by UNESCO positions this student work within a larger context of societal fragility. The students' realization regarding the impact on democracy and their subsequent desire to educate others suggests an understanding that technical solutions alone are insufficient; genuine resilience requires cultivating collective critical awareness across educational systems, moving beyond content flagging toward systemic media literacy. What mechanisms must be established for embedding such critical assessment into educational curricula to ensure these tools translate into widespread cognitive sovereignty rather than remaining niche projects?

From the original · Agência Brasil (EBC)

Students develop platforms to combat disinformation It is very easy to create any type of content with artificial intelligence (AI). Anyone can create images, texts, and videos with a few clicks.

Read the full story at agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br

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