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Real-Time Fact Checking With "Truth Teller"

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-can't-handle-the-truth dept.

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."

3 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Me pappy always said... by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    if(lips_move)
    then
    display("FALSE");

    --
    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  2. Not much is Black and White by eddy_crim · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sound like total rubbish to me. Politicians do lie sometimes and they even occasionaly tell the truth but mostly they bend the truth out of all proportion. If they make a statement its not TRUE or FALSE usually the answer would be "WELL... ITS COMPLICATED.. it depends how you look at it" In the UK we have a radio show dedicated to statistics called More or Less http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd These folks can spend half the show discussing the truth behind a single political statement and then sometimes dont come to a firm conclusion

    --
    hmmm.
  3. Re:Check truth in political speech by arbiter1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    they don't exactly lie, they do speak the truth if you look at numbers they usually quote in a certain way. they just usually leave out the ones that would make them look bad. The truth they speak of is just on the numbers that make them look good. Like the 4 million job's Obama claims to have created. This video explains it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQLreUCRYXM