Brave new world? Robot reporters take over beats
BY BEN LYONS// When an earthquake occurred at 6:25 a.m. on March 17, it may have given “robot” journalism its first big break. The early morning tremblor allowed an algorithm created by L.A. Times programmer and journalist Ken Schwencke to report the story ahead of other outlets.
The story took only about three minutes to appear online, drawing information such as the quake’s time, magnitude and epicenter from the United States Geological Survey and inserting it into a pre- fabricated template.