AI catches fake news by gauging the accuracy of its source

Internet giants are getting better at countering fake news. For the most part, though, they screen content on a story-by-story basis and only block entire outlets well after they've done significant damage. Researchers from MIT's CSAIL and Qatar's Computing Research Institute might have a better solution: use AI to measure the quality of the source. Their machine learning algorithm uses collections of existing articles to gauge the accuracy and bias of a given outlet on the assumption that a fake news peddler or spin factory isn't about to change its ways. Rather than focusing on the claims themselves, it studies the language used to express those claims.