A reporter robot made its publishing debut on Wednesday, January 19 in a Chinese daily with a 300-character report. And it took only one second to finish the piece, scientists say.
The article was published in the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily. And it covered the Spring Festival travel rush.
Xiao Nan, the reporter robot finished the piece within a second and is able to write both short stories and longer reports, said Wan Xiaojun, a professor at Peking University. Xiaojun leads the team that studies and develops such robots.
“When compared to the reporters on staff, Xiao has a stronger capacity for data analysis and is quicker at writing stories,” he said. “But that does not mean intelligent robots will soon be able to completely replace reporters,” he was quoted as saying by ‘China Daily’.
According to him, robots can not yet conduct interviews. Neither can they respond instinctively with follow-up questions. And they are unable to select the news angle from an interview or conversation.
So, human reporters face no immediate threat of losing jobs. Although Xiaojun seemed rather optimistic about the new technology. “But robots will be able to act as a supplement, helping newspapers and related media, as well as editors and reporters,” he said. He also added that he was working with Southern Metropolis to establish a laboratory to study and develop media robots.
As a reporter, I wish I could use this robot. It takes me a lot of time to write a report.
