What exactly is robot journalism?
In 2014, The Associated Press (AP) introduced so-called “robot journalism.” Programmed, automated "writers" can take data based on algorithms and generate news stories, financial reports, and sports articles. AP teamed with a company, Automated Insights (AI), which uses data from Zacks Investment Research, an investment research firm, to write these articles sometimes in less than a second. The Los Angeles Times has a similar program created by journalist and programmer Ken Schwencke called Quakebot, which can track and report effects of earthquakes.
Earthquakes occur regularly on the west coast. Check out how frequently QuakeBot records them in LA.
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Automated Insights' program called Wordsmith generates "human-sounding narratives from data."
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Here is an example of an automated financial report generated by AI using data from Zacks Investment Research.
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Robot Journalism
The Daily Show's Hasan Minhaj interviews Barbara Ehrenreich, columnist for The New York Times,
and Lou Ferrara, editor of The Associated Press.
and Lou Ferrara, editor of The Associated Press.
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"Before Hasan Minhaj loses his job to an automaton, he investigates claims that machines are taking over the jobs of journalists" |
Arguments For & Against Robot Journalism
FORFocus on important writing
Job creator
Accuracy
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AGAINST Threat to journalism
Job killer
Human Imagination
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