Wandering around the Innertubes this morning I stumbled across a Slate piece about how the first story on Monday’s earthquake in Los Angeles was written by a robot — specifically, an algorithm called “Quakebot.”

Quakebot isn’t exactly H.L. Machina. It’s merely intended to “get the basic information out,” says journo-programmer Ken Schwencke of the Los Angeles Times.

And bits of electronica pumping out the news isn’t exactly … well, news. Outfits like Narrative Science have been cranking out sports stories for years now.

There may be a few bugs yet. For example, Narrative Science’s Quill may or may not know the preferred spelling for “judgment.” But chances are a harried reporter or editor might miss that one, too. Somebody at Narrative Science certainly did.

However, for first word on some item that doesn’t require the immediate attention of a MeatBot — an earthquake, a ballgame, where (or if) Andy Schleck placed in a bike race — it sounds like just the ticket for cash-strapped publishers trying to get a hammerlock on the cost of that notoriously hard-to-control human element.

They’ll probably have to keep relying on us for snark, though. For a little while yet, anyway. Beep.