With mechanisation slowly edging into almost every field, the scribe, too, is sought to be replaced by a robot -- in a first, a Chinese newspaper on Wednesday published its first story written by a robot.
The article, in Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily, was 300 characters long and focused on the Spring Festival travel rush, China Daily reported.
Its author, Xiao Nan, took only a second to finish writing the piece and is able to write both short stories and longer reports, according to Wan Xiaojun, a professor at Peking University who leads the team studying and developing such robots.
"When compared with the staff reporters, Xiao Nan has a stronger data analysis capacity and is quicker at writing stories," he said.
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"But it does not mean intelligent robots will soon be able to completely replace reporters."
At present, robots are unable to conduct face-to-face interviews, cannot respond intuitively with follow-up questions and don't have the ability to select the news angle from an interview or conversation, Wan said.
"But robots will be able to act as a supplement, helping newspapers and related media, as well as editors and reporters," he said, adding that he was working alongside the Southern Metropolis Daily to establish a special laboratory to study and develop media robots.
--IANS
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