Leonid Kovachich, head of the Asian department at Sputnik's international broadcasting division. — VNA/VNS Photo

MOSCOW – As modern technology is reshaping the entire information landscape, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrating into social lives at unprecedented speed, journalists must maintain high professional standards and extensive experience to create recognisable markers of authentic information that can counter misinformation.

That was the message from to Leonid Kovachich, head of the Asian department at Sputnik's international broadcasting division.

In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Việt Nam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21), the Russian journalist laid stress on the need for journalism, an integral part of the landscape, to be at the forefront of adaptation. He explained that just five years ago, people could barely imagine such algorithmic sophistication, even as social media platforms were beginning their rapid expansion.

Today, the way people consume information has completely transformed with traditional media outlets like newspapers, television and radio experiencing a decline in the number of audiences, while social media usage continuing to surge, particularly among younger demographics.

Kovachich admitted that while AI has accelerated content production, facilitating tasks such as headline writing, image editing, large-scale data analysis, translation and analysis of a large volume of information, it also has dark implications.

As technology, he said, makes it hard for people to distinguish real and fake news online, journalists need expertise to produce contents that stand out for its authenticity. Another critical concern involves algorithmic control over information display. Journalists and news agencies must ensure the method of information delivery is aligned with platform-specific principles.

Sputnik views AI and emerging technologies as tools for content enrichment, Kovachich explains. The agency has experimented with fully AI-generated video content, from scriptwriting and headline creation to video editing, discovering AI's remarkable capabilities.

Like any tool, AI requires human oversight, he underscored, saying AI could not replace human judgment in verifying information and sensitive political events, and that humans remain the final gatekeepers of content.

Touching on the cooperation between the VNA and Sputnik, Kovachich said through their cooperation agreement, Sputnik has gained access to a crucial news source for readers interested in Việt Nam. He expressed his hope that the collaboration will expand into new technological domains.

Regarding the global dominance of English-language data in training large language models such as ChatGPT or DeepSeek, Kovachich said the tools are trained on human-generated data, which may embed political bias. That’s why the VNA and Sputnik should work together to provide authentic information source that reflects the two countries’ histories and cultures. — VNA/VNS