AI and journalism, robot journalism and algorithms

Abstract

Automated journalism is also known as algorithmic journalism or robot journalism and consists of news articles generated by computer programmes. Through artificial intelligence (AI) software, stories are produced automatically by computers rather than human reporters. These programmes interpret, organise, and present data in human-readable ways. The process involves an algorithm that scans large amounts of data, selects from an assortment of preprogrammed article structures, orders key points, and inserts details such as names, places, amounts, rankings, statistics, and other figures. The output can also be customized to fit a certain voice, tone, or style. Until now, despite it being a growing trend, not that many media outlets worldwide have used automated journalism on a large scale. Pioneer adopters include The Associated Press, Forbes, ProPublica, and The Los Angeles Times. Early implementations were mainly used for stories based on statistics and numerical figures. Common topics include sports recaps32, weather, financial reports, real estate analysis, and earnings reviews.