Bangkok: In an era of information overload and the significant role of AI, the problem of "fake news" and "deepfake" has become a global risk, no longer limited to the elderly but rapidly spreading to young people. Mr. Noah Horikuchi, a young CEO of only 20 years old, founded Classroom Adventure, an innovative learning platform from Japan that transforms classrooms into investigative environments to build media literacy skills.

According to Thai News Agency, the idea for Classroom Adventure originated during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Noah and his group of university friends were living under lockdown. During that time, they encountered a lot of misinformation and fake news spreading, especially about vaccines. Although some organizations were trying to educate people about media literacy, most of their efforts were boring and unengaging for young people. So, they decided to create something "fun" and "interesting" to address this problem.

Noah explained that Classroom Adventure doesn't focus solely on fact-checking, or simply stating what information is "true" or "false," but rather its primary goal is to teach "basic skills in verifying information independently." One of the standout programs was "Ray's Blog," a mystery/investigation game played in the classroom. The atmosphere begins with the lights being turned off in the classroom, and the children are given mystery envelopes to find the identity of a person named "Ray." While solving the puzzle, the children will naturally use their primary source verification and data analysis skills without realizing they are learning about media literacy. Noah believes these skills are like "fishing tools" that will help young people distinguish truth from falsehood in real life.

Classroom Adventure is currently highly successful in Japan, reaching over 1,000 schools and engaging more than 120,000 students annually. It has also expanded to 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan and Thailand. For its pilot program in Thailand, Noah conducted an event at Thammasat University, which received very positive feedback. However, he found that a major challenge was the "language barrier," as the game was in English, forcing Thai students to spend time using Google Translate for communication. This contrasted with the success in Taiwan, where a Mandarin Chinese version was available. Therefore, Noah believes that developing local language versions is essential for wider dissemination.

At the end, Noah left us with two key takeaways regarding the impact of AI: Changing consumer behavior and the rise of malicious content. In Japan, 60% of people are no longer clicking directly to read content on websites, but instead rely on the information summarized at the top of the search results page by Google AI Overview. The frightening thing is that if AI cannot distinguish fake news, that misinformation will be presented as the truth, and people will believe it without verifying the source. Additionally, AI makes it easier to create malicious content, whether it's images or videos, including sophisticated deepfakes that can ruin lives with just one click. Noah concluded that in the digital age where AI is all around us, having critical thinking and the skills to verify information independently is paramount in protecting us from these invisible threats.