CNA to relaunch Spanish-language Focus Taiwan with AI assistance

Taipei, Sept. 30 (CNA) Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) announced Wednesday that it will relaunch its Spanish-language Focus Taiwan news service Thursday, using artificial intelligence (AI) to help produce and edit stories.

The agency said it decided to revive its Spanish-language news site, called Enfoque en Taiwán (CNA en Español), citing advances in AI that can assist with content creation and proofreading.

CNA's original Spanish-language news site suspended operations on April 1, 2021,

CNA President Anne Hu (胡婉玲) said the agency has more than a century of experience in Chinese-language reporting and operates Taiwan's most-visited English- and Japanese-language news sites and an Indonesian news service that caters to immigrants and migrant workers in Taiwan.

The relaunched Spanish site will be CNA's fourth foreign-language news service, Hu said.

CNA's English- and Japanese-language news websites are not AI-powered, while its Indonesian-language news service uses basic AI technology but also features original reporting and video content.

She said the agency will use new technology to produce and distribute news more efficiently, with the Spanish site providing an important way to reach the world's 550 million Spanish speakers.

Hu said CNA will also set targets for expanding its foreign-language news services, incorporating AI to improve the efficiency of its international news distribution.

The agency said it has incorporated a Multi-Agent Verification (MAV) AI-Council mechanism into its relaunched Spanish site, which will translate CNA English and Chinese stories.

The system brings together several large language models (LLMs) to draft, proofread, and fact-check one another's work before selecting the version that receives the most votes from the models to serve as the draft for publication.

CNA compared the translation process for Enfoque en Taiwán to an editorial meeting in which several AI editors work together to improve the quality and accuracy of translations.

The agency stressed that, as part of its commitment to responsible AI use, Spanish-speaking editors will review and finalize all stories before publication.

CNA added that once the Spanish site proves successful, it could launch another foreign-language news site as early as 2027.

Enfoque en Taiwán website: https://espanol.focustaiwan.tw/

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