Los Angeles Times Software Automatically Published Earthquake Story

March 18th, 2014

Via: 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.

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