About Us
We're a non-profit organisation made up of volunteers who have come together to make the checking of information easy, accessible and available to all.
A volunteer-centered initiative.
Independent
CheckMate is not affiliated with any government or commercial entity. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.
Impact-Focused
CheckMate operates for a social cause - to tackle scams and misinformation.
Ground-Up
CheckMate comprises everyday individuals who have banded together to make a positive difference.
Our Community
Started Since
2022
Volunteers
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Our volunteer checkers review the responses produced by the GenAI system. They play a crucial role in the checking process.
Join Our CheckersOur Story
Read about our journey from a small pandemic-era pet project to an AI-powered checking service helping people stay informed.
Idea Born
The idea for CheckMate began in late 2020, during the pandemic. Like many others, CheckMate's founder, Bing Wen, was irked by the sheer volume of health-related misinformation spreading on WhatsApp. The idea behind CheckMate was born, and an early prototype was built on Telegram.
Team Formation
Bing Wen discovered better.sg, a tech for good volunteering platform where people could commit their tech skills to various social good initiatives. He pitched the idea, a number of volunteers joined up, and CheckMate was born.
First Version Launch
The first version of CheckMate was born. This relied on crowdsourcing. The team developed a system that triggered a network of checkers each time a new message was received. The checkers would each vote on a set of categories, and the system would aggregate their votes and deliver a response accordingly.
Operating and Learning
The team kept this version going almost 2 years. There was good traction among our volunteer checkers, but we came to realise that the checks, and hence the experience for users, was lacking in two areas. It wasn't fast enough, nor was it helpful enough.
GenAI-Powered Upgrade
We went back to the drawing board and developed the GenAI system that you now see. We're confident it works much better now. But, running with GenAI isn't cheap, and we're at the limit of what we can do as a volunteer-run initiative. Help us by supporting our work — every bit helps to support free checks for the community.
Our Team
Core Team
Tan Bing Wen
Founder, Man of Many Hats
Lynnette Kang
Head of Partnerships & Community
Ananya Balehithlu
AI Engineer
Eliza Ho
BD and Marketing
Patricia Zhai
Factchecking
Previous Contributors
- Carlos Levya Salas
- Amanda Goh
- Wu You
- Velen Chew
- Vincent Teyssier
- Tasha Tan
- Wendy Po
- Claire Pan
- Cindy Tionata
- Audrey Tim
- Brennan Tan
- Tong Ying
- Lee Wai Shun
- Low Zhekai
- Qin Liaw
- Ellie Lim