The Center for Artificial Intelligence Research Nepal (CAIR-Nepal) has entered into a tripartite collaboration with Tech Journos Forum (TJF) and Sunway College Kathmandu to develop an AI-enabled fact-checking system aimed at strengthening the verification of news and public information in Nepal.
The collaboration brings together expertise in artificial intelligence, journalism, research, and education to address the growing spread of false, misleading, manipulated, and AI-generated content.
Under the agreement, CAIR-Nepal will lead the research and technology development of the initiative. This includes the system architecture, artificial intelligence and machine-learning components, language-processing and knowledge technologies, software infrastructure, testing, and evaluation.
The proposed system will initially support Nepali and English and will be designed to analyze text, images, and audiovisual content. Its capabilities will include identifying factual claims, finding related claims and evidence, retrieving relevant sources, and supporting evidence-based assessment.
A key principle of the initiative is that AI will support rather than replace human editorial judgment. Outputs generated by the system will not constitute automatic final determinations of whether information is true or false. Assessments intended for publication or broadcast will remain subject to review by qualified editors.
The system will also emphasize transparency and provenance, maintaining information about the sources and evidence used, the origins of analyzed content, and the basis for assessments where appropriate.
Combining AI Research with Journalism Expertise
Each partner will contribute complementary expertise to the initiative.
CAIR-Nepal will lead research, technical architecture, AI and machine learning, language and knowledge technologies, evaluation, and software development.
Tech Journos Forum will contribute journalism and editorial expertise, support the development of fact-checking and verification criteria, identify relevant misinformation cases, coordinate with journalists and media organizations, and facilitate testing in newsroom environments.
Sunway College Kathmandu will support the participation of faculty members, researchers, developers, and students in research, prototyping, testing, and validation, while also connecting academic projects and training opportunities with the initiative.
The collaboration also places particular emphasis on the responsible use of AI and the protection of personal information, confidential journalistic sources, and other sensitive information.
National Media Coverage
The announcement of the collaboration has received wide coverage across Nepalese media, reflecting growing interest in technologies for addressing misinformation, manipulated media, and AI-generated content.
The initiative has been featured by a range of national technology, business, financial, and general news outlets, including Bizshala, CNN Khabar, Hamro Artha, Equity Nepal, News Abhiyan, Sansar News, Corporate Khabar, News24 Dainik, TechPana, TechPatra, and Bizpati, among others.
Media coverage:
Bizshala · Hamro Artha · CNN Khabar · Equity Nepal · News Abhiyan · Sansar News · Corporate Khabar · News24 Dainik · TechPana · TechPatra · Bizpati
The coverage highlights the increasing importance of developing locally relevant approaches to information verification as generative AI makes realistic synthetic and manipulated content increasingly accessible.
From Research to Practical Impact
The initiative represents an important step in CAIR-Nepal's mission to translate artificial intelligence research into technologies that address practical societal challenges.
Rather than approaching fact-checking simply as an automated classification problem, the project will combine AI-assisted analysis, evidence retrieval, provenance and transparency mechanisms, and human editorial oversight.
Through the collaboration, CAIR-Nepal aims to contribute to a responsible and technically rigorous approach to AI-assisted information verification—one developed around the linguistic, social, and journalistic context of Nepal while providing a foundation that can potentially be adapted to other languages and information environments.