Robot reporter gets first article published in China

Life

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Reports are out that a Chinese robot has written and published its first newspaper article. The news comes the same month as a Japanese insurance company announced it was replacing 34 workers with an artificial intelligence system.

The China Daily reported on Wednesday that the robotic-written article was published by the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily. The article was a 300-character piece on a local spring festival.The report also noted that the system, designed to write both long and short pieces, wrote the article in one second.

“When compared with the staff reporters, [the machine] has a stronger data analysis capacity and is quicker at writing stories,” Wan Xiaojun, a professor at Peking University who leads the team developing the robot, reportedly said. “But it does not mean intelligent robots will soon be able to completely replace reporters.”

At this point, the robot cannot conduct interviews, ask follow-up questions or select the story’s angle based on information and interviews.

This isn’t the first time that story writing has been automated. In 2014, an algorithm called Quakebot, developed by a Los Angeles Times reporter, wrote a story about an earthquake. That same year, the Associated Press announced it would use software to automate the writing of corporate earnings stories.

Kerravala said reporters should be sure to be able to conduct interviews, write analysis pieces and move beyond simply writing up facts for a story.

Reporters and insurance workers aren’t the only people at risk of losing their jobs to robots and intelligent systems.

With robotics and artificial intelligence making strong gains over the past several years, there is increasing talk – and concern – that they are better positioned to replace human workers and save businesses from paying salaries, benefits and giving vacation time.

A recent Forrester Research report predicted that robots and AI systems could take as many as 6% of US jobs by 2021.

Smart systems, chat bots and humanoid robots could take over jobs that range from hotel employees and customer service reps to truck and taxi drivers.

IDG News Service

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