In Automatic journalism or as some people call it “Robojournalism” we see what a machine is capable of. When A.I (Artificial Intelligence) software produce news articles which would normally be produced by a journalist, a human journalist. Could this truly be possible? If it is, how is it possible that a machine could possibly match it’s writing skills with that of a human being.
We know that the trend started in China after their crazy obsession with robots for years when robot monks and robot waiters were invented but what we didn’t expect was robots writing headlines. Head lines that human beings like you and I would read. Would we read it in the same way we would read a normal article? Would we be freaked out that this wasn’t a human being,just a robot being fed data on a golden platter or should I say golden software.
No,people weren’t shocked that it was a robot writing the article instead people were shocked at how much potential the article had. The Southern Metropolis Daily published it’s first ever report written by it’s first ever “robot reporter” which was a 300 word article and summarized what train tickets were mostly in demand over the Lunar New Year holiday,which was the time that Chinese workers traveled home to meet their families for upcoming festivities during the holidays.It went further on discussing which routes were selling out and advised people to buy their tickets as soon as possible.
In the U.S automated reports are becoming a norm for heavy data news such as finances.sport and weather. In China,the official Xinhua News Agency introduced it’s first ” robot reporter” in 2015,which was named Fast Pen Xiao Xin,apparently a reference to popular Japanese cartoon Shin-chan.
As journalists how does this really affect us? One would say it barely affects us as we have real brains behind a story, however these robots don’t need to be paid and sit behind desks complaining about the stories they need to write or how much they hate their bosses. Instead this robot is fed information and the rest is automatic. So what goes through our minds? Could a robot really be capable of stealing our jobs? Yes,it definitely could become a norm, but what robots don’t have is personality,emotion or understanding of what the real story’s about. They can’t feel the story and the impact it could have and this means thy can’t really get in touch with the story like a normal human being can.
For now, I wouldn’t worry about it but in the future A.I will be realized like it already has in some areas.
A Hour With Kay. 