The Associated Press, AP, announced they will be using algorithms, machines, robots to write their corporate earnings stories for the business news report. Yes, machines will be writing stories and that is often something Google is not a fan of.
AP said they are working with AutomatedInsights and Zacks Investment Research to make it happen.
Right now, the AP writes about 300 earnings reports each quarter but hopes that with this new technology in place they will be able to produce up to 4,400 automatically. They said they will still do editorial human written stories but this will allow them to do many more.
AP said they've been doing this on some level with the AP’s sports agate report for several years.
I have to assume Google will not treat the automated stories so highly but time will tell. AP said this is going live in July, which is this month.
I posted this on Twitter and got some interesting responses:
@rustybrick ... :) pic.twitter.com/VhizgS7TrA
— Colin McDermott (@colinmcdermott) July 1, 2014
@rustybrick Depends how valuable the articles are - perception (engagement) & uniqueness (algorithmic) #RobotWriters #Skynet
— Grant Simmons (@simmonet) July 1, 2014
.@rustybrick 'look & feel human'. Think we're a long way from that. Linguistic patterns & actual native speak make #language hard to imitate
— Martin Oxby (@moxby_SummitWeb) July 1, 2014
Value add? MT @rustybrick: The AP is going to have robots write articles http://t.co/qOSAZt44yo I wonder what Goog will think about that.
— Eric Enge (@stonetemple) July 1, 2014
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto for robot writer