Real-Time Fact Checking With "Truth Teller"

The Washington Post has announced a prototype news application called "Truth Teller", that displays “TRUE" or “FALSE” in real time next to video of politicians as they speak. The Knight Foundation-funded program automatically transcribes speeches and checks the statements against a database of facts. From the article: "For now, the early beta prototype has to be manually hand-fed some facts, and thus only works on topics it has been specifically designed to recognize. Since Congress has yet to pass a budget, and financial discussions are prone to widespread lies and misstatements, Truth Teller is being piloted on the issue of tax policy."

Comments

I, for one,...

[Overzeetop]

The difference is that the T/Z interaction details are not facts.

How much money was allocated to the military in the last ten years in budgets?
How much money was spent by the military in the last ten years?
What percentage of the revenue of the federal budget is collected as income tax on those making in the top X% of income earners?
How many people receive social security who also have assets greater than $2,000,000?
Are there more or fewer naval ships in service today than in 2000?
Do the bottom 50% of income households pay zero income taxes? zero federal taxes? zero taxes?
How many days of vacation has the president taken in the past 4 years? Has the president taken more vacation days per year than the previous president?
How many firearms are purchased in the US in a year?
How many intruders are shot by firearms owners defending their property or person?
How many suicides are the result of firearm use? Of poison use? Of jumping off buildings?
What is the national average price of hamburger?

All verifiable facts from reliable, independent sources. Based on the ability of Watson to parse, search, and manage data, I think it's also possible to determine if the data is in question.

As someone who routinely fact checks and is appalled at the gross inaccuracies out there (not just the twisting or cherry picking, but simply wrong) I, for one, welcome our new robotic fact checking overlord(s).

Re:Check truth in political speech

[crazyjj]

This is too true. Politicians are the masters at manipulating "truth" to their own agendas. You can say something completely factually accurate and still subtly *imply* with the statement something completely false. A simple statement like "This President says he wants to fight terrorists, this President Barak Hussein Obama, claims that he's going to fight Muslim terrorists" is 100% factually accurate. But it conveys something much more sinister and 100% false (that the President is somehow sympathetic with, or perhaps even in league with, Muslim terrorists).