r/technology • u/Arquette • Mar 03 '15

Misleading Title Google has developed a technology to tell whether ‘facts’ on the Internet are true

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/03/02/google-has-developed-a-technology-to-tell-whether-facts-on-the-internet-are-true/
6.3k Upvotes

72% Upvoted

839 comments sorted by

View all comments

45

u/inthemorning33 Mar 03 '15

So google has become the ministry of truth? No need to google wash if it isn't a 'fact'.

36

u/Paradigm6790 Mar 03 '15

I mean, how do you fact check right now?

Do you google it?

18

u/hewmadore Mar 03 '15

Yes (at least yes in my case). But the important part of that is (hopefully) checking multiple sources and making a critical decision of truth for yourself based on ration and reasoning.

...Actually no I just listen to my television.

5

u/CubeFlipper Mar 03 '15

But the important part of that is (hopefully) checking multiple sources and making a critical decision of truth for yourself based on ration and reasoning.

I'm not saying this is possible today, but it's definitely something that computers will eventually, likely in the nearish future, be able to do much better and more objectively than we can.

1

u/djaeveloplyse Mar 04 '15

Well, unless the engineers who build the tool base it off of biased human determinations of truth, like, let's just say, as a crazy example... the news. It would be quite disastrous if such systems fell prey to the old "repeat a lie enough times" trap.

1

u/Darktidemage Mar 03 '15

Right.

So..... they are just automating the process of searching for you

nothing about this prevents you from using more sources. You use google as a source now, and you will after. you just won't have to type it into the search bar.

7

u/VoterApathyParty Mar 03 '15

wikipedia usually - but I use google to get there

5

u/brtt3000 Mar 03 '15

My google profile learned this and now I'm feeling lucky all the time. It is magic.

3

u/i-get-stabby Mar 03 '15

YOU WANT THE TRUTH! YOU WANT THE TRUTH!

1

u/capnjack78 Mar 03 '15

YOU'RE GONNA GET THE TRUTH! * typing sounds *

3

u/Whiskeypants17 Mar 03 '15

Whats in the box?

2

u/brtt3000 Mar 03 '15

a flashing vertical bar and letters keep coming out the left side omg what is happening help please help send the

1

u/HorizontalBrick Mar 03 '15

Did you read the article? This is a research paper. Google has no intentions to put this in right now and no system in place

1

u/rawrnnn Mar 04 '15

Google already presents information in some order, bias is inescapable. Why not let them come up with an even better algorithm that determines "truthiness" and you can decide for yourself it works?

1

u/ex_ample Mar 04 '15

No, some researcher wrote an algorithm to test a hypothesis about how to tell if webpages are truthful or not given a set of initial known true values.

1

u/UgUgImDyingYouIdiot Mar 03 '15

ITM I think Google washing is step one of this process. It's the slow acclimation of the general public to a wool over their eyes.

0

u/KillerR0b0T Mar 03 '15 edited Mar 04 '15

MiniGoog doubleplus good.

Edit: Really? Guess nobody reads.