The Duke Reporters’ Lab, a journalism-centric arm of Duke University, has unveiled a new political fact-checking app for Alexa Voice-enabled devices—including the Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Tap—giving device owners the ability to fact-check politicians in real time.
A spin-off of the Lab’s Share the Facts fact-checking project, the app is available in the Skills section of the Alexa app, with PolitiFact, the Washington Post’s Fact Checker and FactCheck.org all contributing to the database of approximately 2,000 curated fact-checks.
The app not only includes fact-checks for both presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump but also other candidates and politicians who’ve previously been checked.
The app works by users asking “Alexa, ask the fact-checkers,” with the app replying “Welcome to Share the Facts. We consolidate fact-checks from some of the most respected journalists in the U.S. Ask me to check a fact you’re wondering about.”
The Lab shared that the results are timely and have consensus among fact checkers, with results being mostly keyword-based.
