Deep-learning tool detects whoppers with 90 per cent accuracy

The tool uses deep-learning algorithms: a type of machine learning algorithm which processes data through successive layers to extract increasingly meaningful and complex information. This algorithm – which the researchers were motivated to create by the proliferation of politically motivated viral deception online – determines whether claims made in news stories or social media posts are supported by other content on the same subject. "If they are: great, it's probably a real story," said Professor Alexander Wong, a systems design engineering expert at the University of Waterloo. The algorithm was trained with tens of thousands of claims paired with stories that either supported or rejected them. The researchers tested their system using a dataset created for the 2017 Fake News Challenge.