From January 24 to 26, 2025, Chișinău’s Mediacor hosted the AI Media Hackathon 2025 – a vibrant, fast-paced event that brought together Moldova’s brightest developers, data scientists, media professionals, and students. Organized by Inteligența Artificială în Acțiune in partnership with Independent Countering Disinformation Center (ICDC), the hackathon aimed to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time: the spread of disinformation.

Over 85 participants joined forces for 48 hours to build innovative, AI-driven solutions to counter foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). Teams were challenged to create tools and platforms addressing three key areas: fact-checking and real-time news verification, gamified educational tools to increase awareness about disinformation, and digital solutions for detecting psychological and cognitive biases that leave people vulnerable to manipulation.

Themes and Challenges

Participants worked across three carefully curated challenge areas, each designed to foster practical, scalable, and impactful results. The first challenge focused on building verification platforms capable of identifying fake or manipulative news and providing fact-checking features accessible to journalists, civil society, and the general public. The second challenge emphasized gamification — creating interactive tools that teach users how false narratives spread and how to recognize manipulation tactics. The third challenge addressed the human side of disinformation: cognitive biases. Teams created AI-powered tools that could identify and explain biases like confirmation bias, fear appeal, and authority bias.

Winning Projects

Team Epicenter won the grand prize with their AI-powered crisis response platform designed to help companies and NGOs simulate and manage reputational risks. Their tool allows organizations to anticipate public backlash and adjust communication strategies in real-time. The platform’s predictive analytics and user-friendly interface set it apart from traditional PR management tools. The team demonstrated its effectiveness with a case study based on the Bud Light brand controversy and proposed a scalable, subscription-based model.

Tech Titans claimed first place with “Legitimacy Lens,” a tool designed to evaluate the credibility of online content using machine learning and sentiment analysis. Their platform provides real-time credibility scores to help users assess news sources more critically. Targeting both individuals and media organizations, the project blends technical sophistication with public utility and has already attracted interest from platforms like TV8 and Stopfals.md.

The second-place team, xXCode_destroyersXx, created “BiasAware,” a browser extension and Telegram bot that identifies bias and manipulation in media content. The tool highlights emotional language, misleading headlines, and biased framing. It’s aimed at journalists, researchers, educators, and everyday users who want to better understand the psychology behind news reporting.

Team RADR, which secured third place, built an AI-powered browser extension that scores news articles on credibility and highlights misleading content. Designed especially for students, civic activists, and young journalists, the tool supports multiple languages and enables fast, accurate verification. The team plans to roll out the platform in Moldova this year and expand across Eastern Europe.

A Diverse and Collaborative Environment

The hackathon brought together a truly diverse community. Participants included students from the Technical University of Moldova and the State University of Moldova, professionals from major tech companies such as Orange Systems and Endava, as well as independent developers, designers, and startup founders. Notably, one team member participated remotely from Dubai, showcasing the hybrid and inclusive nature of the event.

The event was further strengthened by the presence of experienced mentors who supported the teams throughout the process. Experts in AI, journalism, product development, and media ethics provided critical feedback to help refine the projects. The jury, composed of representatives from IWPR, ICDC, the UK Embassy, leading media and tech professionals, evaluated each solution based on innovation, feasibility, impact, and scalability.

What Comes Next

The AI Media Hackathon 2025 wasn’t just a competition — it was a launchpad. Many of the prototypes are now being refined for real-world use. Teams are seeking funding, forming partnerships, and planning pilot launches in Moldova and beyond. With strong technical foundations, clear business models, and an urgent social mission, these solutions are poised to make a real impact.

This year’s edition proved that AI can be a powerful tool in building digital resilience, and that when technologists, journalists, and educators join forces, meaningful change is not only possible but inevitable.