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More or Less: Behind the Stats

WS: More or Less - Automated fact-checking

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.63.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Computer programmes are being developed to combat fake news.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.6

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.4

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

0:14.3

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

0:20.4

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

0:40.0

We're your weekly guide to the numbers all around us, and I'm Tim Harford.

0:44.8

Imagine watching a televised political debate, a speech or an advertisement, with me sitting

0:50.0

beside you on the sofa, occasionally shouting out, surprising but true, or it's a bit more complicated

0:56.5

than that, here's a leaflet. Alas, that's just a sweet, sweet daydream.

1:01.9

But what if software could do automatically much the same thing,

1:06.7

underlining dubious claims and providing links to vital context in real time?

1:11.6

The UK-based fact-checking organisation vital context in real time.

1:12.8

The UK-based fact-checking organization, Full Fact, has been working on just such a system.

1:18.8

They plan to release the initial version in October and are hoping that people all around the world will be able to use it.

1:24.9

So I ask Meven Babaqar of full fact to show me what she's been getting up to and whether I should

1:30.4

be worried. Automated fact-checking sounds like the most terrifying thing in the world

1:35.5

because I'm imagining now me being replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator,

1:41.6

like a robot fact- Oh actually probably it's going to be C3PO isn't it it's not going to be

1:45.5

it's not going to be Arnie but I imagine it's probably not actually that so what is it show me

...

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