New Robots

Submitted by ub on

Even when robotics technologies were relatively primitive, their potential role in boosting the productivity and competitiveness of the United States was foreseen in the evolving global marketplace.

The AP is a leader in using robot news writing, generating sports and business stories that appear in thousands of publications. A system called Heliograf writes stories for The Washington Post. Swedish local news publisher MittMedia produces a robot-written story on every local house sale — catnip to those who follow real estate.

As they move into robotics, news companies should ask some serious ethical questions. Here’s my checklist of what to consider regarding 1) the robot stories themselves, 2) issues of news judgment and transparency, and 3) pitfalls to be alert to.

Longtime friend and AP colleague, Professor Tom Kent's An ethical checklist for robot journalism by @tjrkent https://link.medium.com/tirqGhxf5U

‪But a mission statement is an important element of any news operation. What's yours? https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2019/a-mission-statement-is-an-imp…