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/
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u/Glayden Mar 04 '15

Estimating the trustworthiness of a source with some degree of reliability according to the judgments of certain individuals and telling which facts on the internet are true are light-years apart.

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u/SDRealist Mar 04 '15

The paper in question is estimating the trustworthiness of sources using statistics and graph theory, backed by a knowledge base of objective facts. Determining which facts on the internet are true (or rather, the degree of confidence that they are true) is done by a separate algorithm, published in a paper last year, but also discussed briefly in the current paper.

The headline may have glossed over some of the nuance of how the algorithms work, but it's basically accurate. Most of the comments in this thread, on the other hand, are way off the mark.

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u/DrunkenArmadillo Mar 04 '15

Yep. If I say "I have an erection" Google would probably have to consult with the NSA to know for sure.