The Agroos team, a startup participant in the 7th season of the CIG R&D LAB educational and scholarship program at Lviv Polytechnic, has developed a telegram bot using artificial intelligence to counter pro-Russian disinformation and propaganda during the war with Russia.
– Currently, there is more fake information in the Ukrainian information space than ever before, which has a detrimental effect on Ukraine. That is why we decided to fight it, says the team.
– How did it all start?
– We are the Agroos team: Ustym Buchko, Yurii Rozhankivskyi, Bohdan Zavadka, Ostap Shyika and Yurii Reshetnyk. We are third-year students of the Internet of Things program at Lviv Polytechnic. We met a long time ago, when we were classmates at the Lviv Lyceum of Physics and Mathematics. Since we became friends, the teamwork is easy, and we always understand each other. In our first year at the university, we immediately made a team and started working on various projects.
– What problems did you face during your work?
– Most of the problems, albeit minor ones, were related to the lack of communication between team members, as it was all for the first time for us. But now, thanks to the conclusions we have drawn, we are moving forward. The problems within the team have been overcome, and we have developed certain mechanisms for internal interaction and monitoring the progress of each member, which is necessary for the collective result.
– What are the startup’s development prospects?
– We are working on testing the business hypothesis of the Telegram bot and trying to understand whether the product is in demand in this form and whether it will be profitable. As for future plans, we have ideas on how to expand the capabilities of the Telegram bot and develop other means of countering disinformation. To do this, we still need to conduct a lot of market research and interviews with potential users. As for the Telegram bot, by November 2024, we aim to have 100 users who will pay a monthly subscription for unlimited use of the bot.
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