How Chatbots Can Be Used To Fight the Fake News Pandemic (in Nigeria)
It is 2020 and Artificial Intelligence is not just another buzz word, it is now an everyday reality.
In previous articles, pre-Lockdown, I had outlined the case for why every Nigerian business should consider building a chatbot, followed up by how businesses might adopt chatbots for customer support and lead generation, and a third article explored the different methods in which Nigerian schools might adopt chatbots for semi-automation of student enquiries in the admissions process and general student affairs.
Still, in tune with the opportunities for all digital-first businesses in Nigeria, I made a case for how the new wave of digital banks and other digital-focused businesses in the country can leverage artificial intelligence.
In keeping with this faith in artificial intelligence, I will try to show why the Nigerian media industry is due for some serious chatbots. By serious, I mean chatbot solutions that add value to Nigerians and boost the bottom-line of News and media outlets.
Firstly, Nigeria is faced with an information pandemic — with a daily flurry of unverified news circulating on walls and pages of social networks, and more dangerously on Statuses and different groups on personal messaging platforms.
Generally, for want of the next trend or FOMO, and in the absence of any handy tool for verification; people are drawn to circulate the next sensational news.
Recall, the sensational stories of the past couple of years, from Oyedepo’s ‘purported’ visa incident at the US Embassy (which was false), to ‘One state governor’ who sustained spinal cord injuries in a road accident (another false story), to ‘money-eating’ animals (funny but false). There is much falsehood being peddled around town.
Fortunately, the over 60 News media outlets in the country can leverage WhatsApp/Facebook messenger to address this situation.
How so?
Design and Develop WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger bots that curate the latest trends and highlights the true, the false and everything in between. Users can then speak to the bot about trending news stories to confirm if it is true or false.
In this case, unanswered queries (i.e. questions which the bot cannot answer) will be shared with real journalists who are best placed to fact check stories. Alternatively, the steps for anyone to Fact check a news story can be made easily accessed by chat so people always have the tool to verify any story.
Granted, these suggestions appear rather simple, this is because implementing a bot solution is actually a simple science and art of:
- Figuring out the goals for the bot (in this case, deliver content to the readers’ Messenger inbox or WhatsApp).
- Design and develop the flow of conversation for the Chatbot solution
- Test how people interact with the flow
- Optimize for the audience
- Feed the bot with the latest content, and optimize conversations as time progresses.
In the past few years, many global news networks have used basic AI solutions (Chatbots) to deliver NEWS to readers via Direct Messaging Apps.
Forbes, CNN, BBC have all developed working bots with limited capacities which are plugged to their Facebook/Messenger pages.
Forbes News Chatbot — Click to Engage
Personally, I think that one of the best examples of a NEWS Bot at the moment is India’s ZEE News — which has been a News Distribution gamechanger for ESSEL Group-owned ZEE NEWS.
By Clicking on Message you can start a conversation with the Bot and also get curated NEWS from them daily.
This bot has the potential to reach the over 10 million followers of the page or anyone at all who messages the page. This is the closest thing to one voice speaking to a few thousand people at once.
Bots encourage the sharing of NEWS content.
In fact, after 4 years of CNN using a variety of chatbots across messaging apps like Kik, LINE, and Facebook Messenger as well as voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo, they have understood that the technology enables both the intimacy of a one-to-one conversation as well as a mechanism for broadcasting a critical message at scale.
Also, they have reached the understanding that the most effective chatbots bring the right mix of editorial curation and technological automation. Thus, the reason for the fifth step of enhancing the chatbot flow and content over time (see steps 1 to 5 above).
Despite the gains of deploying chatbots and the existing uncertainty about the future of bots generally, I think the there are still many useful instances in which bots can be used to successfully tackle real problems; especially in the case explored in this article — Curbing FAKE NEWS.
Although the screenshots in this blog have been mostly from Facebook Messenger, it is important to note that Nigeria’s National Center for Disease Control with help from Facebook launched an official bot available on +234 708 711 0839.
Similarly, the suggested use of News Bots can be fashioned in this style — Chat to access the latest News right on WhatsApp and verify Fake Stories by Chat.
NCDC (Nigeria) COVID-19 Chatbot.
If you would like to learn more about the adoption of Chatbots or Artificial Intelligence for your business. Send a mail to projects@futuresoft-ng.com and we would be available to help you as much as we can.
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You might also be interested in 7 ways a chatbot can help your business during and after COVID-19
OR LinkedIn Tips For Surviving In a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic World
