Adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls has been working with an AI company to develop a new fact-checking platform that aims to equip user...
Adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls has been working with an AI company to develop a new fact-checking platform that aims to equip users with "digital survival skills."
Grylls, best known for his television series "Man vs. Wild," is partnering with Seekr, an internet technology firm, to launch an educational platform that delivers "critical media literacy tools," giving users "the confidence to safely navigate the online landscape.
Seekr seeks to empower its users by "streamlining access to reliable information," according to its website.
"With so much of our time spent online and misinformation spreading like wildfire, conquering the digital environment really is the next frontier, I'm excited to partner with Seekr to create the next generation of digital young explorers," Grylls stated.
Mission Seekr is a fact-checking system and "educational and adventure platform."
Each month, Grylls assigns users with a "mission" that includes a "digital and outdoor exploration component." Since the project's announcement in June, the platform has already launched its first challenge, which asks users to research "the threats facing our oceans and investigate the ways we can all make a difference." The platform then provides a list of "top-rated articles and reliable content" for challengers to use as sources to complete the mission.
Seekr Technologies CEO Pat Condo told Fox News Digital, "At Seekr, we're committed to creating a more informed society and empowering people to make smart and educated decisions about the content they consume."
"Together with Bear Grylls, we're embarking on a groundbreaking adventure to develop critical media literacy skills and bring trust to the online experience," he added.
Mission Seekr differs from other fact-checking platforms, Condo said. He explained that the system works by analyzing articles based on credibility in "a directional kind of position as opposed to an absolute position."
"We wanted to take a complex subject which is identifying false and misleading information, and we wanted to build it into something a little bit more, you know, focused on young adults. And the idea came from our collaboration with Bear, where he's all about survival skills and yet enjoying the environment," he stated.
"And we created Mission Seekr, which is all about digital survival skills, how to get media literacy and education and critical thinking into young people. But at the same time, in an environment that is fun and challenging and utilizes concepts of survival except really focused on the digital aspects of it," Condo continued.
Additionally, Condo said that the company strives to work with volunteers and partners who are not political figures.
"In order for us to get a message out, we need people that, you know, genuinely believe that young people need the skills. But we also believe we also need people that are not political. We don't want to put volunteers into the system by bringing on somebody that has a political orientation and perhaps that everybody does. But it has to be sublimated to the bigger picture," Condo added.
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