MISINF AI

Our Track- Social Issues

Inspiration

Misinf AI was inspired by real stories and everyday struggles with misinformation. We’ve all seen it—fake news stories spreading during elections, family members sharing health “advice” that turns out to be harmful or celebrities whose reputations are damaged by AI-altered videos. It’s shocking how easily misinformation shapes opinions, decisions, and lives. We built Misinf AI to be the tool that gives everyone a sense of security online—a way to feel confident about what’s real and what’s not.

What it does

Misinf AI acts as a real-time digital watchdog, scanning every page you visit for potential misinformation, deepfakes, and AI-manipulated content. It analyzes news articles, videos, and even health claims, providing a “credibility score” and a clear explanation of any red flags. If a video has signs of deepfake manipulation or an article from a questionable source, Misinf AI alerts you instantly, empowering you to make decisions rooted in verified information. With Misinf AI, you can browse confidently, knowing that every click brings you closer to the truth and shields you from digital deception.

How we built it

We built Misinf AI as a browser extension using HTML and JavaScript for a lightweight, responsive interface. A JSON configuration file defines the extension’s permissions, UI elements, and interactions. To power real-time misinformation detection, we integrated APIs from OpenAI and Google Fact-Check, which allow the extension to analyze content on any webpage. The extension runs background scripts to fetch credibility data and uses content scripts to display results directly in the browser, providing users with instant, reliable insights into the authenticity of what they’re viewing.

Challenges we ran into

We faced several challenges, including maintaining HTML structure when highlighting false information, which we resolved by using tags for non-intrusive styling. Additionally, sending API requests for each sentence led to excessive calls, so we optimized by checking entire paragraphs instead. When paragraphs exceeded OpenAI’s character limit, we further refined our approach by splitting text into manageable sections, ensuring efficient and accurate processing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Real-Time Detection: Successfully integrating multiple APIs to work in real-time was a major accomplishment. Seamless User Experience: We’re proud that Misinf AI can detect and flag false information without disrupting the user’s browsing experience. Accurate Flagging: Seeing Misinf AI accurately detect and flag false information or deepfakes has been incredibly rewarding and motivates us to keep refining it.

What we learned

Complexity of Misinformation: We learned just how broad and complex misinformation is, affecting many areas of life and requiring more than just technical solutions. User Education: We realized that effective misinformation protection combines technology with clear, helpful explanations. People need a tool that’s easy to understand and acts as a guide, not just a detector.

What's next for MISINF AI

We’ve learned a lot from building Misinf AI, especially about the complexities of misinformation. Moving forward, we plan to expand its capabilities to social media, where misleading content often spreads rapidly. We’re also working on developing real-time audio and video analysis for deeper detection of manipulated content.