DS4Skills: A European Data Space for Skills Development
DS4Skills is a European project aimed at developing new digital services for education and training through the secure and responsible sharing of data. Co-funded by the European Commission under the Digital Europe Programme, it brings together stakeholders from education, research, training, employment, digital technologies and the media around a common goal: to better support citizens in acquiring the skills needed for the world of tomorrow.
As part of this project, Agence France-Presse (AFP) is collaborating with the French digital education company TRALALERE to explore new ways of strengthening critical thinking through access to reliable information in the age of artificial intelligence.
European Cooperation for Trusted Data
The DS4Skills project is part of the European strategy to create sectoral data spaces that enable organisations to share their data according to common rules established within a trusted European framework.
In this context, AFP contributes its expertise in the valorisation of verified journalistic content while ensuring that content producers retain control over the conditions governing access to, sharing of and reuse of their data.
The project is also exploring links with TEMS (Trusted European Media Data Space), the European data space dedicated to the media sector, in which AFP is also involved.
This complementarity opens the way for new forms of cooperation between the media and education sectors, helping to promote broader access to authenticated and trustworthy content.
For many years, AFP has been actively involved in combating disinformation. Within DS4Skills, the agency is putting this expertise to work in the development of digital educational tools designed for young audiences, teachers, and training professionals.
Digital services to support critical thinking
AFP and TRALALERE are experimenting with two digital solutions aimed at strengthening media and information literacy.
The first seeks to create an AI-powered educational assistant capable of helping users better understand the cognitive biases exploited or triggered by disinformation and the reflexes that should be adopted when encountering questionable content.
The second explores the conversion of text-based fact-checks into video format in order to make them more accessible to the public. Unlike conventional AI tools, this solution is designed to enable editorial oversight throughout the various stages of the text-to-video conversion process.
These pilot projects aim to make trusted information more accessible and easier to understand through tools designed as a first entry point into media and information literacy. They are not intended to replace teachers or media and information literacy professionals, but rather to support and complement their work.
AFP main contributions are :
the licensing of a selection of multilingual fact-checks;
its editorial expertise in analysing disinformation mechanisms;
its support in designing solutions that use artificial intelligence responsibly;
its experience in other European data spaces (TEMS, TAM) working to enable the secure circulation of trusted data.
its recognised expertise in leading international fact-checking and media literacy projects, as well as its position as a global leader in digital investigations.
What are the benefits for citizens?
At a time when online content is proliferating and false information can spread rapidly, this collaboration within DS4Skills aims to strengthen citizens’ ability to critically assess the information they encounter.
The solutions developed as part of the project are intended to promote access to reliable sources of information, support media literacy stakeholders and encourage the responsible use of artificial intelligence. Ultimately, the objective is to help equip citizens with the skills needed to understand, assess and interpret the content that shapes Europe’s digital information environment.