Could a robot have written this story?

Software with increasingly complex algorithms are now writing news stories and financial reports The L.A. Times uses Quakebot to write about tremors, using data from the US Geological Survey. Chicago-based company Narrative Science markets its Quill software to media and financial houses The company's chief scientists believes a computer program could win a Pulitzer Prize within the next 5 years The L.A. Times uses Quakebot to write about tremors, using data from the US Geological Survey. The company's chief scientists believes a computer program could win a Pulitzer Prize within the next 5 years At large news agencies where speed is crucial, template-style stories have long been used for company results, allowing journalists to simply key in the relevant facts and numbers and fire off the dispatch. Often disparagingly referred to as'churnalism,' some of the larger media organisations -- including the L.A. Times and Associated Press -- have now turned to robots to take the grind out of formulaic dispatches. The L.A. Times uses the algorithms in its in-house software -- called Quakebot - to produce reports on local earthquakes, using data provided by the US Geological Survey.