Mirko Lorenz from Deutsche Welle On #ChatEurope, and Its Druid AI Agent

ChatEurope combines a media content hub, an AI Agent provided by Druid AI and social media channels to offer citizens across Europe reliable answers to their questions on European issues. Mirko Lorenz, Innovation Manager at Deutsche Welle, is among the experts evaluating the new combination of news and AI-generated summaries.

Artificial intelligence meets quality journalism

At the heart of ChatEurope is an AI Agent that accesses only a verified library of European news. “We want to find out how AI can help citizens obtain simple and secure information on European politics, economics and society,” explains Mirko Lorenz. “Our focus is on transparency and reliability.” Every answer provided by the AI Agent clearly references its journalistic sources, allowing users to trace the information.

Clear boundaries for quality and safety

To avoid misinformation and so-called AI “hallucinations,” ChatEurope deliberately concentrates on European topics. The AI Agent does not answer questions outside this scope. Its technical foundation – a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) system – ensures that the agent can access only verified content from media partners, keeping the open internet excluded.

Multilingual, user-friendly and faster than before

From the very start, the ChatEurope AI Agent has been able to answer questions in all EU languages. This is based on content currently available in seven European languages. Translations are powered by modern AI systems that have made enormous progress in recent years. Performance is also continuously being optimized: “We are constantly working to refine the technology and provide answers even faster,” says Mirko Lorenz. In the early phase, response times could take up to 30 seconds depending on the question. Through targeted optimizations of the technical backend processes, the average response time has now been reduced to approximately 10–15 seconds. “This is part of our learning process: how do you configure AI systems for peak performance, and what benefits and costs are involved?

European tech partners powering ChatEurope

The technical implementation of ChatEurope involves close collaboration with several European technology partners. The French company XWiki developed the news platform chateurope.eu. The AI Agent integrated into the platform was provided by the Romanian company Druid AI and operates using the language model of the French company Mistral. For the multilingual delivery of content, ChatEurope uses the plain X platform, developed jointly by Priberam and Deutsche Welle. It is used to translate text content, provide translated subtitles for videos, and will in the future also support live translation of video streams. Deutsche Welle is also responsible for the technological evaluation of the AI Agent.

A project with long-term potential

ChatEurope is an early, public research project with a long-term outlook. Additional news sources and new features are planned. “We proceed step by step – each new source is tested before it becomes part of the public platform,” Lorenz explains.

A new information service for Europe

ChatEurope is creating a novel and trustworthy access point to European news: users receive quick, transparent answers to their questions about Europe – verified, easy to understand and multilingual. The project provides important momentum for Europe’s digital news landscape. Despite EU funding, the initiators stress the full editorial independence of all participating media organizations.

ChatEurope partners:

• Agence France Presse (AFP) / France

• Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) / Italy

• Agora Media Group / Poland

• German Press Agency (dpa) / Germany

• Deutsche Welle (DW) / Germany

• Druid AI / Romania

• El Pais / Spain

• France Médias Monde / France

• Maldita.es / Spain

• MediaConnect (AFP) / France

• news aktuell (dpa) / Germany