Los Angeles Times Software Automatically Published Earthquake Story
March 18th, 2014Via: BBC:
The Los Angeles Times was the first newspaper to publish a story about an earthquake on Monday – thanks to a robot writer.
Journalist and programmer Ken Schwencke created an algorithm that automatically generates a short article when an earthquake occurs.
Mr Schwencke told Slate magazine that it took around three minutes for the story to appear online.
“Robo-journalism” is increasingly being used in newsrooms worldwide.
The LA Times is a pioneer in the technology which draws on trusted sources – such as the US Geological Survey – and places data into a pre-written template.
As well as the earthquake report, it also uses another algorithm to generate stories about crime in the city – with human editors deciding which ones need greater attention.