Robot reporter’s first article published

A robot journalist made its debut in Chinese daily, Southern Metropolis Daily, with a 300-characters-long article written in a second! Xiao Nan Robot’s article summarized what train tickets are most in demand over the Lunar New Year holiday.

Xiao Nan can write short stories and longer reports, according to Prof. Wan Xiaojun of Peking University who leads the team developing such robots. “When compared with the staff reporters, Xiao Nan has a stronger data analysis capacity and is quicker at writing stories. But it does not mean intelligent robots will soon be able to completely replace reporters,” he added.

At present, robots are unable to conduct face-to-face interviews, cannot respond intuitively with follow-up questions and do not have the ability to select the news angle from an interview or conversation.

“Robots will be able to act as a supplement, helping newspapers and related media, as well as editors and reporters,” Xiaojun said.