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Geolocation made easy with new DW tool SPOT

The new tool makes it easier than ever to find out exactly where an image was made or video was recorded. The beta version is already available for anyone to try out.

DW SPOT geolocation

Identifying where an image or video was taken is an important step for digital verification, which is a vital part of a journalists’ work. It helps to create context for their stories and to debunk misinformation. But it requires patience, perseverance, determination, and sometimes a little help. That's why DW's Research and Cooperation Projects team has developed SPOT – an AI supported tool that helps users find exactly the place they’re looking for.

How it works: Easy prompting for AI

Natural language prompts enable users to describe the prominent geographic features they see in an image, such as landmarks, infrastructure, or special buildings. If users then add information about distances between the features in the image, SPOT will show possible matches with data from OpenStreetMap. A prompt can be as simple as "Find me an italian restaurant within 50 meters from a bus stop and within 150 meters from a park in Düsseldorf."

"SPOT is an incredibly useful, state-of-the-art implementation of AI technologies in journalistic workflows," says Wilfried Runde, Head of Research and Cooperation Projects at DW. "Simplifying the geolocation verification process not only saves time, but it also increases the accuracy of reporting."

With the rise of AI and manipulated media, tools like SPOT provide a critical layer of verification that helps maintain the integrity of journalism. And with social media networks increasingly ramping down how they address disinformation on their platforms, it is even more crucial for independent media like DW to lead by example in terms of verification. SPOT leverages artificial intelligence to not only streamline the verification process, but also to make verification accessible to a broader audience, including citizen journalists and researchers.

DW continues to prioritize and enhance publicly available tools and workflows for verifying digital media, ensuring that accurate information prevails in the digital landscape.

Beta version ready for anyone to try out

Curious to see how it works? SPOT is now available as a free-to-use beta version via https://findthatspot.io/. Users can log in with their GitHub or Google account and start searching.

SPOT is co-funded by the German Secretary of State for Culture and the Media (BKM) via the KID2 Project (Künstliche Intelligenz gegen Desinformation #2).