‘Joseph Hook, Radar’s data editor, said the journalism his team produces would have been useful in his previous role as a reporter at the Swindon Advertiser, as it would have given him more time for the more human side of reporting — talking to people.’
Calling it ‘the UK’s most prolific reporter’, the Financial Times describes how AI-powered RADAR delivers human interest and local headline stories. The story suggests RADAR represents a new level of automated story delivery beyond the earnings and sports pieces that have typified autoscribe systems.
RADAR is a start-up news service built around six journalists and an AI system that gathers and prepares pieces from public data about housing, education, crime or health.
RADAR has generated more than 100,000 localized articles since piloting began in December 2017, according to an earlier piece by PA.
The AI component finds and parses source data and versions it for local markets, directed by human writers. It’s a joint venture between URBS Media and Press Association (PA), the longstanding UK news agency.
FT says RADAR delivers news to about 350 news publications daily, much of which to supplement local coverage instead of replacing human reporters.
Robo-reporter writes front-page news
FINANCIAL TIMES | June 4, 2019 | by Patricia Nilsson