What it does
FalseAlarm is a Chrome extension that scans the page you are already reading, flags claims that may be false or misleading, and shows a verdict with the corrected information and real scholarly sources in one click. Click a highlight and a card opens with the original claim, the verdict, the correction, and three clickable sources.
How it was built
TypeScript and Vite Chrome extension. Gemini detects suspicious claims and summarizes sources. Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex retrieve the scholarly sources. Grok from xAI compares the claim against the sources and returns the verdict. The popup renders in a Shadow DOM so page styles cannot break it. A Node proxy mode keeps API keys off the client for the demo.
Challenges
Google Scholar has no official API and blocks automated scraping, so Scholar is a best-effort proxy-only attempt with Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex as fallbacks. Every verdict must come only from sources actually retrieved, never invented citations. When no paper addresses a claim, the verdict is insufficient evidence, never false.
Accomplishments
A working end-to-end flow from page scan to verdict card, a demo mode that works with no API keys, and a claim-hash cache so re-scanning a page costs no new API calls.
What is next
Per-site settings, a way for users to report a wrong highlight, a Firefox port, and image and video fact-checking.
Built With
- chrome
- typescript
- vite
