Swedish Sports News Site: Now 70% Robot Written


The vast majority of sports stories generated by local football site Klackspark are now written by robots, according to Cecilia Campbell.

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She’s chief marketing officer at United Robots, a pioneer in AI-generated writing.

Launched in 2016, the site has been cranking-out about 850 articles-a-month on European football in Östergötland, a province in southern Sweden.

Human “reporters do the really interesting stories that also convert people,” Campbell says.

“It started as a free site,” Campbell adds. “But it did so well, they now put it behind a paywall.”

In other AI-generated writing news:

*They’re Here: Semi-Automated Blogs: Web site creation firm Zyro has rolled-out a new AI tool it says semi-automates the production on blogs built around common topics.

Available free, the AI tool generates blog topic lists and titles for common industries like travel, food, fashion and music.

Also included is a copywriting tool, which helps flesh-out the titles with engaging text.

Plus, there’s a heat-mapping tool that optimizes blog layout and image selection.

“Artificial intelligence has long been used in the marketing space,” says Thomas Rasmyas, head of AI, Zyro. “But only now are we seeing its potential to help marketers with the most creative aspects of their work.

“This new tool goes far beyond marketing automation, using AI to generate completely original ideas.

“Not only will this help marketers and content professionals struggling with writer’s block — it will also stimulate entirely new ideas for creative content and future campaigns.”

Study: Majority of Journalists Fear AI: A new poll released by the Press Gazette – a publication covering journalism in the UK — found that 69% of readers surveyed see AI as a job threat.

The finding – drawn from more than 1,200 poll respondents – undermines the ongoing assurances of many proponents of robot written journalism.

They insist AI will enable journalists to focus on highly creative pieces – and leave mundane, formulaic writing to the machines.

“My instinct is that, over time, this will start to take on more of the less enjoyable, repetitive work – and allow journalists to go out and do the human element of the work,” says Joseph Hook, editor, Radar.

But other early adopters of AI-generated writing indicate journalists could be getting more than they bargained for as they work alongside their silicon-based sidekicks.

“I think we will get to the stage where we don’t need the human journalist,” says Jane Barrett, global editor for media news strategy at Reuters.

“But it will be up to each publication as to what they are happy to put through – and there will be regular testing,” she adds.

*Phrasee: Master AI Tinkerer of Short Ad Copy: Barb Mosher Zinck takes a fresh look at...

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