Toronto, Canada – March 27, 2023 – The Social Media Lab is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Canadian #AI Misinformation Hackathon. The hackathon was designed to encourage Canadian undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, computer engineering, information science, data science, UI, or related fields to come up with innovative ways to use ChatGPT or other AI tools to fight misinformation and disinformation online or on social media. The hackathon is funded in part by the Social Media Lab at Ted Rogers School of Management and a grant from the Government of Canada.
Fifteen student teams from across Canada registered to participate in the hackathon, which provided an opportunity for the students to work with cutting-edge AI technology and make a difference in the fight against misinformation.
The students were challenged to address one or more of the following challenges: identifying and flagging misinformation, fake accounts or coordinated/inauthentic link sharing; providing real-time fact-checking of claims made by politicians and public figures, or claims made in breaking news stories; identifying and blocking propaganda and disinformation websites; analyzing and detecting deep fake videos or other types of manipulated media; monitoring and providing updates on the spread of misinformation on social media to the public; and implementing one or more of the intervention strategies proven to be effective against online misinformation and manipulation.
The Social Media Lab would like to congratulate the winning teams and thank all participants for their hard work, creativity, and enthusiasm in tackling one of the most pressing challenges of our time.
The Top Three Winning Solutions
The winners of the 2023 Canadian #AI Misinformation Hackathon are as follows:
• First Place: ReadProbe – An AI-powered tool to support lateral reading by Dake Zhang & Ronak Pradeep, University of Waterloo (demo, source code)
• Second Place: Google-Map-Review-Reliability-Checker by Yongxing Zhang, Jasmine Xu, Yundi Duan, Xunchao Zhang, University of Waterloo (source code)
• Third Place: FactBot for Discord by Emilie Chen, Chun Ye, Marie Ezra Marin, Lawrence Gu, McGill University & University of Waterloo (source code)
The winning teams were selected based on the following criteria: the originality of their approach, the potential impact of their solution, the quality of their code and the effectiveness of their demonstration.
About the Winning Solutions
The first-place winner, ReadProbe, is an AI-powered tool that supports lateral reading, enabling users to quickly assess the credibility of a website. Lateral reading is a critical thinking approach used to evaluate the credibility and accuracy of information found online by stepping away from the initial source and exploring other sources to verify its authenticity. The team impressed the judges with their well-designed demo and well-written source code.
The Google-Map-Review-Reliability-Checker team from the University of Waterloo won second place with their solution, which involved identifying and flagging fake or unreliable Google map reviews. The team demonstrated an impressive level of technical expertise and attention to detail.
The FactBot for Discord team from McGill University and the University of Waterloo took the third place with their solution, which involved creating a fact-checking bot for Discord. The team impressed the judges with their innovative approach and demonstrated ability to work together effectively.
For more information about the 2023 Canadian #AI Misinformation Hackathon and the winners, visit the Social Media Lab website at https://socialmedialab.ca/.
About the Social Media Lab:
The Social Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University. The lab studies how social media is changing the ways in which people and organizations communicate, disseminate information, conduct business and form communities, and how these changes impact society. The broad aim of the lab’s various research initiatives is to advance the public’s understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of social media adoption.
Contact:
Social Media Lab
Email: [email protected]Website: https://socialmedialab.ca/