ROBOTS REPLACING REPORTERS: QUAKEBOT!

Schwencke is a digital editor on the Times’ data desk, where he is a reporter and a programmer. Using parameters he set, Quakebot will write a story based on details from seismic events with a “newsworthy magnitude,” put a post into the Times’ CMS, generate an image based off Bing maps and tell copy editors the story is ready. Quakebot also shares info from USGS about revisions to the event — if the agency downgrades a quake’s magnitude, as happened today, or if sensors in California mistakenly pick up a quake elsewhere.

Gosh you could replace most of the rest of ’em with something that did the same thing with White House press releases. . . .