A group of interns at a well-known D.C. technology and consulting firm have created a tool to fight fake news.
The college students created the tool as a part of the Booz Allen Hamilton Summer Games internship program. The group invented a web browser extension that has the ability to monitor what content is fake and what content is real as a person surfs the internet.
The extension relies on several metrics to come to a conclusion about the veracity of an article. The extension then rates the content, on a sliding scale, as to how true it may be.
"We give a lot of information to the user as to why we came to a decision about an article," said intern Alex MacNair.
Tonight on @wusa9: A team of interns at @BoozAllen have come up with a new tool to fight #fakenews. pic.twitter.com/Df50Bcc9lG
— John Henry (@JohnHenryWUSA) August 3, 2017
The tool is just one of a variety of projects being worked on by Booz Allen Hamilton interns during its competitive Summer Games program. Roughly 450 interns are tasked with creating real-world solutions to real-world problems as a part of the initiative.
Aimee George Leary, a senior vice-president at Booz Allen Hamilton, said the program is a good way for the firm to attract and retain smart, young talent.
"Bringing these folks together, it's amazing what they can do," she said. "The solutions that they come up with are just mind-blowing."
The fake news tool developed at Booz Allen Hamilton could reach a wider audience one day too. The teams that participate in the Summer Games will soon pitch their ideas to Booz Allen Hamilton leadership. After that, the company will decide which ideas to invest in.
