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PA computer generated match reports
Technology developed by Danish news agency Ritzau may be used by the PA to generate content such as match reports. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
Technology developed by Danish news agency Ritzau may be used by the PA to generate content such as match reports. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/REX/Shutterstock

Press Association to look at automating sport and news stories

This article is more than 7 years old

Editor-in-chief Pete Clifton tells Society of Editors that computers could be producing articles such as match reports and election results within months

Robots could soon begin contributing to agency copy used by the UK’s newspapers after the head of the Press Association said it was poised to begin experimenting with automated sport and news stories.

PA editor-in-chief Pete Clifton told the Society of Editors conference in Carlisle on Tuesday morning that computers could be producing articles such as match reports and election results within months.

He said the organisation was embarking on a fact-finding mission to Denmark, where news agency Ritzau has developed its own bespoke automated reporting technology.

According to Press Gazette, Clifton told the conference automated reporting wouldn’t replace PA journalists, but would be used to support the newsroom.

“It will be more a case of offering an extra level when it comes to short market reports, election results and football reporting.”

Referring to Ritzau’s production of hundreds of market reports using automation, he said: “They are more accurate than when somebody was trying to write too many stories on their own.”

“Will it take over from proper journalists? Of course it won’t. We won’t have a robot going to a big fire or covering a crown court case.”

He also dismissed concerns from the audience that computers producing stories could be tricked by “pranksters”, saying the agency would be “taking very small steps in this area”.

US-based Associated Press has been using computers to generate stories such as match reports and financial result write-ups since the beginning of 2015. It has been able to create basic financial stories within seconds of firms releasing their quarterly results, and recently began producing reports from baseball matches.

However, PA’s move brings the prospect of computer-generated reporting appearing regularly in the UK press far closer. PA is joint owned by UK newspapers, including the Guardian, and provides articles that appear regularly throughout different publications.

It is unclear whether PA intends to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to construct complex stories with the most salient points picked out, or merely simpler systems for producing formulaic write-ups with basic details.

As well as producing simple stories that would normally have to be written by a human, intelligent computer systems are increasingly being used by journalists to explore new ways of reporting, especially when dealing with large volumes of data.

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