Butterfly Data wins SAS Hackathon with tool to fight misinformation

Powered by SAS Viya, it helps decision-makers identify trustworthy data

The flood of misinformation and disinformation is becoming a major problem, often negatively influencing decisions and causing harm. The overall winner of the 2024 SAS^® Hackathon is working to address this problem.

Team Butterflies from Butterfly Data, a SAS Partner, has developed an AI-powered tool to help analysts and decision makers assess data sources for their reliability and credibility. Based in the UK, Butterfly Data is a diverse team of experienced technology consultants specialising in data science and data management solutions that help organisations turn data into strategic assets. SAS is a leader in data and AI.

The SAS Hackathon-winning solution uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) and classification models to check the trustworthiness of open-source data. With Butterfly’s tool, organisations can verify data sources, spot unreliable information and ensure the use of ethical information to make decisions.

“In a world where data can shape decisions with real-world consequences, it is essential to ensure its reliability. Combating misinformation with trusted data leads to better and more transparent decisions,” said Luke Coldridge, Senior Consultant at Butterfly Data and Team Leader for Team Butterflies. “We believe this tool can be a force for good, helping combat disinformation and promote a more informed world.”

Powered by Viya

To create the solution, Team Butterflies used SAS’ data and AI platform, SAS Viya^®, as well Viya Workbench and Viya Copilot. It also leveraged open-source tools like Git, Python and VS Code.

Released in 2024, SAS Viya Workbench is a cloud-based coding environment purpose-built for developers, data scientists and modelers. It significantly improves speed and efficiency and makes it easier to conduct data management, analysis and model development using SAS or Python code, through Visual Studio Code or Jupyter Notebook.

Built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, SAS Viya Copilot is an AI-driven conversational assistant embedded directly into the SAS Viya platform. It gives developers, data scientists and business users a powerful personal assistant that accelerates analytical, business and industry tasks. SAS Viya Copilot is currently available via an invitation-only, private preview, with general availability coming later this year.

Detecting disinformation

Created using Agile software development principles, Team Butterflies’ solution uses SAS Viya for advanced analytics and machine learning, with Viya Workbench and Viya Copilot accelerating model development and integrating large language model (LLM) technology.

Open-source tools supported flexible coding and seamless collaboration, while Viya’s Cloud Analytics Services (CAS) data-processing engine enabled centralised data management and real-time dashboards. SAS Information Catalog APIs further enhanced transparency by tracing data lineage and quality, boosting user confidence in the insights delivered.

SAS Hackathon

The 2024 SAS Hackathon boasted 1,731 registrants from more than 70 countries. This led to an all-time high of 145 approved teams that participated in the month-long hack, supported by 110 SAS mentors. SAS produces the annual SAS Hackathon, which was sponsored by long-time SAS Partners Microsoft and Intel.

During the SAS Hackathon, teams of data scientists, business analysts, technology enthusiasts and students come together – often virtually across continents – to network, learn from each other and from a SAS mentor, and experiment with new technologies that spark innovation and improve lives.

“Team Butterflies and all SAS Hackathon teams clearly demonstrate the potent combination of curiosity, innovation and AI technology to address big problems in business and society,” said Einar Halvorsen, Global Hackathon Producer at SAS. “As a caterpillar transforms into something more, Team Butterflies’ AI-powered tool transforms data into better insights and trustworthy decisions.”

The announcement of Team Butterflies as overall SAS Hackathon winner was made this month at SAS Innovate, the SAS data and AI technology conference.

In November, Team Butterflies was named a winner for the 2024 SAS Hackathon in four categories, including regional winner for EMEA, technology winner for Models, and special award winner for both Channel Readiness and Trustworthy AI.

More than 100 judges participated in the evaluation of Hackathon teams as category winners and Butterflies as overall winners.