Posted on 03/26/2014 4:48:59 AM PDT by Star Traveler
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.
Other news organisations have experimented with algorithm-based reporting methods in other areas, particularly sports.
The generated story does not replace the journalist, Mr Schwencke argued, but instead allows available data to be quickly gathered and disseminated.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Will it be programmed to express the liberal bias of women and children suffer the worst.
“Will it be programmed to express the liberal bias of women and children suffer the worst.”
Yes, it’s the liberal bias algorithm default program.
Big deal. Robot writers have been working for the MSM in this country for years, and the output has been prolific since 2007, or so.
Think they’re called O-bots...
Maybe they can build robots to buy their increasingly ignored rags.
There is no more than random journalistic accidents
in America where the MSM is IN BED with the undocumented
Communists and Moslem terrorists in power, abetted
daily by the EXEMPT, now-hated US Congress.
“Will it be programmed to express the liberal bias of women and children suffer the worst.”
It will have a random access table. Bush’s fault, unexpected, unprecedented, Koch brothers, global warming, ultra-conservative Republican, warm-hearted liberal...
Do you think they’ll rely on Auto-correct like it seems that a decent amount of modern journalists do these days?
Take a look at the sourcing for each Free Republic thread ... it looks like the media we’re sourcing here ... :-) ...
Then the computer algorithms ought to be orders of magnitude better! ... LOL ...
Well, there’s plenty of trained apes that could do a better job than the journolistas.
You left out “fracking” (...soon to be responsible for lunar eclipses!)
The deal about a “computer algorithm” is that it can more easily be examined for a “bias” and verified to have one - than - one can examine a liberal writer’s brain ... :-) ...
It’s one thing to have a biased human writer, since they can deny it and try to cover it up - but - it would be IMPOSSIBLE to cover up a bias that was BUILT INTO a computer algorithm.
SO ... that ought to produce more UNBIASED WRITING ... the way I see it.
Is it possible the robot could write just the facts with no bias pre-programmend in?
That makes for a “good quip” — but I would like to see you actually IMPLEMENT that one ... LOL ...
Omitting bias is bias
That would be the easiest way to write such an algorithm. To insert a bias - one way or the other - would be EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT, and would be very easily detectable.
Worse than that, they'll use 'Auto-PC' to replace terms like "illegal aliens" with "esteemed, super-patriotic guest workers", and a new tool: the 'Auto-Palinizer' that creates random stupid quotes that were supposedly spoken or tweeted by Sarah Palin.
I mean... the current crop of reporters are little more than robots anyway, spouting out the propaganda of the left.
I could easily program a robot to spout out the drivel leftist reporters say.
First: ignore all criminal stories where the perp is black, unless the cases has obtained some level of notoriety, and then only mention the specifics of the crime without mentioning the race of the perp.
2nd: Never mention Islam when reporting on terrorism.
3rd: Turn anything a Republican says into a charge of racism.
4th: If a charge of racism can't be leveled, accuse the Republican of being mean spirited.
5th: cover up, ignore, or make excuses for any offense a Democrat makes no matter how severe the accusation.
6th: When reporting on ANY natural event, link it to man made global warming.
7th: Report more on the poverty when Republicans hold office, and ignore it when Democrats are in office.
See, it's easy to program a robot reporter!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.