The Washington PostThe Washington Post

AI may be news reporting's future. So far, it's been an embarrassment

By Paul Farhi

22 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

informed Summary

  1. Artificial intelligence programs have been used to generate news stories, but have often produced inaccurate or inappropriate content. This includes an obituary that described a former NBA player as "useless at 42" and a travel article that recommended tourists visit a food bank.

In their short life as machine-generators of news stories, artificial intelligence programs have screwed up simple interest calculations, botched the chronology of Star Wars movies and produced sports stories that appeared to contain little actual knowledge of sports.

The latest embarrassing bit of robots-gone-wild "reporting": An obituary of a former NBA player described in the headline as "useless at 42."

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