What Are Politicians Really Saying In Their Speeches? See How FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) Uses AI Bot Margaret For Some Clues

Margaret, the artificial intelligence (AI) bot, has a knack for interpreting presidential mannerisms. 

Dubbed a specialist in ‘Trump-speak,’ Margaret has an internal record of the former president’s distinctive use of syntax, phrases and sentence structures. The bot, for example, reportedly knows the extent of Trump’s vocabulary, how many words he speaks per minute, what body part he moves when he’s angry and other distinct mannerisms.

By carefully measuring his distinct features, Margaret is possibly capable of gauging Trump’s stress levels during political speeches, predicting what he might say in public before he does and even suggesting when he might be lying. In short, the bot is a bona fide expert on former president Trump. She knows his tics, tells, tendencies and habits. How, you may be wondering, did she get there?

Teaming up with a computer expert with a Ph.D. in machine punctuation, Bill Frischling fed his AI bot over 40 years’ worth of Trump-like speech gleaned from Trump’s interviews, public letters, tweets and television appearances. The result is an 11-million-word data mine, a proverbial treasure chest of the Trump lexicon, which Margaret was taught to decipher and understand. 

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. When Frischling first started working on his AI bot, it crashed while transcribing Trump’s speech commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. The speech – with all of Trump’s syntax, sub-clauses, trail-offs and mannerisms that make up his distinctive style – caused the bot to malfunction. 

Now, some might say, the bot knows more about Trump than most Americans do. 

FiscalNote Acquires FactSquared: The Details

The interesting news is that this technology is now available to consumers.

FactSquared, the company responsible for Margaret’s creation, is now a part of FiscalNote NOTE, a specialist in data collection provides insight into regulatory processes in the U.S. 

Margaret can reveal incredible things about U.S. presidents after digesting so much information. For example, Frishling told the Los Angeles Times that Trump doesn’t appear stressed when he’s lying. Frischling has taken his work with Trump and extended it to important political candidates. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, he proposes that certain members of Congress “tend to forecast when they are about to make a policy shift, focusing more on their public comments on a given topic and altering their language.” 

It’s clear that such information, which gives stakeholders a hint at what the future may hold, could create a huge edge over competitors. 

Speaking of the acquisition, CEO Tim Hwang said: “Receiving timely and accurate read-outs of comments made by our public officials is a crucial service to our clients. FactSquared’s commitment to innovative rigor in the transcripts space will not only further strengthen the robust set of products and services we provide clients, but also drive meaningful technological innovation as we continue expanding the breadth and depth of our offerings globally.”

FactSquared has evolved its AI prowess to include information on current U.S. President Joe Biden and even corporate earnings calls. The two additions are available on the factba.se website, which was cited over 4,000 times by local and global media sources. 

Through FiscalNote, any customer can now unlock AI’s predictive capabilities to see through political guises and uncover the truth.

Learn more about FiscalNote here. 

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Featured Photo by Ronda Darby on Unsplash