Meta Combats Its Ties With Fake News By Building Fact-Checking Tool

Ask around, and you may come across a handful of people who blame Facebook for being the main culprit of “fake news,” but it appears the social media network’s parent company, Meta, is now trying to make amends through its latest tool: Sphere. 

The artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge tool works by using information on the open web to power its system, and will take on its first task of autonomously scanning entries and verifying citations on the internet’s foremost encyclopedia, Wikipedia. 

According to TechCrunch, the site is currently populated by 6.5 million entries, and has 17,000 articles added each month, making it near impossible for moderators to oversee all of the crowdsourced content. 

As such, Sphere—which is open-source and built on 134 million public web pages—could prove to be an invaluable tool at ensuring Wikipedia’s articles and edits are consistent with credible sources of information found elsewhere.

It’s important to note, however, as CNET points out, that the knowledge tool is still in its research phase, and will not be used on Meta’s own platforms. Though, it could very well be a step in the right direction for Meta to work on a solution to combat the rampant misinformation prevalent online.

[via TechCrunch and CNET, cover image via Boumenjapet | Dreamstime.com]