Will Human Journalists Be Replaced By Robots?
Recently, a Washington DC commentator on Air America’s Randi Rhodes Show complained that talking to a local journalist was like trying to have an educated adult discussion about sophisticated issues with an adolescent. Not that this isn’t possible – there are very bright and sophisticated high schoolers out there – but the point seems to be that this journalist lacked any sort of in-depth understanding of the issues which which he was supposed to be dealing with.
Could robotic journalism be an answer? Thompson Financial, a business journal, is now using “news robots” to gather breaking stories in the financial world. Human journalists may have cause to worry: news-bots can churn out a story in a fraction of a second, never miss a deadline, don’t argue with editors and don’t require expense accounts.
However, as one scientist pointed out long ago, humans have the unique ability to take initiative (most of the time) and make value judgements. At their current stage of development, machines can only obey. “News-bots” are unable to find stories for themselves, cannot interview sources and have no way of separating the proverbial “wheat” from the “chaff.” Until we have a real-life Dr. Soong to create some sort of positronic thinking machine, it’s unlikely that news-bots will be replacing human journalists.
In the meantime, news-bots can conceivably focus on the “grunt-work” of gathering very basic information, freeing human journalists to investigate more important stories – if only they would.
Via New Scientist
Recently, a Washington DC commentator on Air America’s Randi Rhodes Show complained that talking to a local journalist was like trying to have an educated adult discussion about sophisticated issues with an adolescent. Not that this isn’t possible – there are very bright and sophisticated high schoolers out there – but the point seems to be that this journalist lacked any sort of in-depth understanding of the issues which which he was supposed to be dealing with.
Could robotic journalism be an answer? Thompson Financial, a business journal, is now using “news robots” to gather breaking stories in the financial world. Human journalists may have cause to worry: news-bots can churn out a story in a fraction of a second, never miss a deadline, don’t argue with editors and don’t require expense accounts.
However, as one scientist pointed out long ago, humans have the unique ability to take initiative (most of the time) and make value judgements. At their current stage of development, machines can only obey. “News-bots” are unable to find stories for themselves, cannot interview sources and have no way of separating the proverbial “wheat” from the “chaff.” Until we have a real-life Dr. Soong to create some sort of positronic thinking machine, it’s unlikely that news-bots will be replacing human journalists.
In the meantime, news-bots can conceivably focus on the “grunt-work” of gathering very basic information, freeing human journalists to investigate more important stories – if only they would.
Via New Scientist
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