Are you ready for a little … robojournalism?
Brace yourselves, sports fans, for The Rise of the Robotic Sportswriters.
The New York Times reports that a North Carolina company is devising software that will turn stats into stories without any input from the annoying meatware, which is always getting in the way with its whiskey, cigarettes and endless trips to the toilet.
Says StatSheet founder Robbie Allen: “My goal was that 80 percent of readers wouldn’t question that the content was written by a human, and now that we’ve launched, I think the percentage is higher.”
No surprises there, Robbie old scout. Most “readers” can’t tell fact from fiction, as the recent midterm elections made all too apparent. And having been an editor since 1980, I can assure you that a sizable percentage of human-generated journalism — especially sportswriting — could be replaced by a TRS-80 crosswired to a Hoover canister model with a direct pipeline to a ConAgra feedlot.
But still, damn. Do I need to buy a paper hat and add a masters in Fryolator to my B.A. in journalism? At my age?
Mad Blog Media 
Damn it O’Grady, you gotta stop posting shit like this. I’m closing in on 60, damn bod’s a wreck, am not on the bike nearly as much as I used to, I drink too much vino, all I dream about is getting back to Italia every night and then I read crap like this. I mean WTF? Seriously – Is this what we’re coming to? “News” written by computers?! I can’t handle it…
I’m half way into a very nice bottle of Zin as I write this. I should have finished the bottle before I read your latest installment. Don’t call me in the morning…
I guess that is ‘better’ than outsourcing the local news to Dubai? Of course then we’d get to read about exciting sports like cricket, billiards and darts. Hand me a a beer post haste, scribe!
Yes.
David, I feel your pain. I see stuff like this and I remember the Linotype operators, engraving-room techs and other long-vanished craftspeople with whom I once worked. Couldn’t put out a paper without them. Now, it seems, you don’t even need the reporter.
James, MediaNews has explored outsourcing newsroom functions to the Subcontinent. In fact, I think a California outfit has actually done it. I’ll have to root around, see if I can dig up that link. Hope it works better than my chats with Hostcentric tech support.
And Ben — damn, I don’t wanna wear a paper hat (though I do like me some fries).