Robot reporters are coming after the Press Association confirmed that it will feature sport and news stories written by artificial intelligence.
Editor-in-chief Pete Clifton told the Society of Editors conference in Carlisle that automated match reports and election results stories will be available within months.
“This won’t be replacing any of our fantastic journalists,” he said.
“It will be more a case of offering an extra level when it comes to short market reports, election results and football reporting.”
Clifton cited Danish news agency Ritzau’s reporting technology, which produces hundreds of market reports a month.
“They are more accurate than when somebody was trying to write too many stories on their own,” Clifton said.
American agency Associated Press has produced financial stories on firms’ quarterly results since early last year while Opta had an early attempt at football match reports several years ago but they were inaccurate.
Clifton added: “Will it take over from proper journalists? Of course it won’t.
“We won’t have a robot going to a big fire or covering a crown court case.”