KODACHROME
Posted on 08/22/2006 10:38:56 AM PDT by abb
First it was the typewriter, then the teleprinter. Now a US news service has found a way to replace human beings in the newsroom and is instead using computers to write some of its stories.
Thomson Financial, the business information group, has been using computers to generate some stories since March and is so pleased with the results that it plans to expand the practice.
The computers work so fast that an earnings story can be released within 0.3 seconds of the company making results public.
By using previous results in Thomson’s database, the computer stories say whether a company has done better or worse than expected.
“This is not about cost but about delivering information to our customers at a speed at which they can make an almost immediate trading decision,” said Matthew Burkley, senior vice-president of strategy at Thomson Financial.
“This means we can free up reporters so they have more time to think.”
Mr Burkley said the computer-generated stories had not made any mistakes. But he said they were very standardised. “We might try and write a few more adjectives into the program,” he said.
Thomson started writing computer programs for different types of stories, at a cost of $150,000-$200,000 (£79,623-£106,190) per project, to try to catch up with rivals such as Reuters and Bloomberg.
Thomson has also hired hundreds of specialist reporters to boost its news operations.
Reuters said it automatically generated some stories, while Bloomberg said it did not.
The desire for speed reflects the growth of automated trading. Many hedge funds want direct feeds that can be plugged into programs and used for trading.
Thomson’s automatic stories are being generated mostly in the US market.
What fun would it be shooting dying animals mired up to their asses in tar pits? It's much more fun to sit on the bank and watch them suffer and bellow and wail and moan - and then sink in a great gassy final belch...
lol... future fossil fuels according to one dumb theory
LOL------laugh riot.
My sides hurt! The "better be a reward" was hilarious! ;-)
Great ads!
LOL, you took my advice and 'cut loose' alright. That is flamboyant!!
Too bad most FReepers don't have WebTV so they could hear audios right on the thread without "killing" the animated FX
A good sound card and quality speakers and perhaps a monster stereo amp like mine and they would be surprised with the results
--
Stange that PCs are actually limited in some many ways
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.