C-3PO as a nightly news anchor? Alexa winning the Pulitzer Prize? These silly scenarios sound like the stuff of science-fiction. But the truth is that automation is increasingly infiltrating the fourth estate and impacting how the press gathers and reports the news.
From transcribing to fact-checking and polling to tweet parsing, artificial intelligence has aided the newsroom for years. More recently, organizations small and large—including giants like The Washington Post, Forbes, AP and Reuters—are using AI and machine learning to actually compose content. And that’s got the industry and consumers sitting up and taking notice. Naturally, some journalists worry about being replaced by bots. But others embrace the technological advancements, seeing them as aids in the process of producing and distributing the news.
Intrigued? Read my newest piece for Digital Content Next, which includes interviews with major and minor news organizations and how they are increasingly adopting AI, available here.