Budakov Films successfully conducted a national focus group interview in Bulgaria as part of Activity 1 of the Erasmus+ KA210 VET project DeepTech for Creative Trust: Countering Deepfakes and Enabling Ethical AI in the Audio-Visual Industry. The session marked an important milestone in the project’s needs analysis and co-design process, bringing expert insight directly into the development of the project’s training programme.

Why this focus group matters

Generative AI tools for image, audio, and video creation are rapidly changing how content is produced and consumed. Alongside new creative opportunities, the technology introduces serious challenges for education and professional practice—especially in relation to deepfakes, misinformation, authorship, consent, copyright, and public trust in digital media. For educators and trainers, these developments create an urgent need for practical skills, clear ethical guidance, and training formats that translate complexity into usable learning resources.

The Bulgarian focus group was designed to ensure that the project outputs are grounded in real-world experience and reflect current sector realities.

Strong participation and structured methodology

The focus group brought together nine experts—exceeding the originally planned number of participants—representing perspectives from education, media, audio-visual production, digital literacy, and AI-related practice. The session was moderated by Dr. Yordan Karapenchev and followed a structured focus group methodology, ensuring balanced participation, purposeful discussion, and systematic documentation of findings.

The format enabled nuanced conversation around both technical and ethical aspects of synthetic media, while keeping the discussion oriented toward concrete competence needs and training applications.

What the experts discussed

The discussion explored how deepfakes and generative AI are affecting education and the creative sector, and what kinds of competences educators and learners require to respond effectively. The focus group addressed key themes that will shape the project’s training content, including:

  • Understanding how deepfake technologies and generative AI systems work, including limitations and risks
  • Detecting and analysing manipulated audio-visual content using practical tools and verification methods
  • Ethical, legal, and copyright implications, with emphasis on consent, attribution, transparency, and accountability
  • Responsible AI workflows for educators and creative professionals
  • Approaches to restoring trust and transparency in digital media ecosystems
  • Effective hands-on learning formats, such as case studies, simulations, and short scenario-based videos

Participants also contributed practical examples and scenarios that can be translated into teaching materials and exercises.

How the findings will be used

Insights gathered during the Bulgarian focus group will directly inform the design of the project’s core outputs, with a particular focus on Activity 1: the co-design of a six-module EQF Level 4 training programme titled “Ethical AI for Creative Trust.” The programme will build deepfake literacy and support responsible AI use in educational and audio-visual contexts, including pedagogical prompting, data protection, and intellectual property.

The focus group results also contribute to cross-country comparison across the partner countries, ensuring that the final curriculum and resources are adaptable and relevant across European VET and higher education environments.

European partnership for trustworthy creative AI

DeepTech for Creative Trust is implemented under the Erasmus+ KA210 VET Small-Scale Partnerships framework by a European consortium bringing together:

  • Luxembourg Creative Lab (Luxembourg)
  • XU Exponential University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
  • Budakov Films (Bulgaria)

Together, the partners work at the intersection of technology, ethics, education, and the creative industries to strengthen resilience against deepfakes and support responsible innovation.

Next steps

With the focus group phase progressing across partner countries, the project now moves toward consolidating findings and translating them into structured learning modules and practical resources. The co-design approach ensures that the training programme is not only technically sound, but also realistic, teachable, and aligned with the needs of educators and the evolving labour market.

Budakov Films will continue contributing real-world cases and production expertise to support high-quality learning materials and scenario-based video resources that educators can directly use and adapt.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Anefore asbl. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Pr. Nr: 2025-2-LU01-KA210-VET-000371932