3.7 Case Study: Creation of Content

How to use AI to improve content creation

AI can automate small content initiatives with natural language generation. Artificial intelligence isn’t quite in a place where robots can write entire articles for your blog. At least not yet. In the meantime, one way to use AI is by creating small data-specific content pieces, like tweets, news updates, and reports with the help of the natural language generation technology.

Not really sure what natural language generation (NLG) is? Simply put, it’s when an algorithm translates complex data into human language. In its essence, NGL software automatically generates narratives to describe structured data in a matter of milliseconds.

Case study : The Washington Post’s “robot reporter,” called Heliograf

Heliograf is an automated storytelling technology that covers D.C.-area high school football games based on the data submitted by football coaches. This technology allows in-house journalists to focus on in-depth reporting of the “bigger” games while keeping the local community informed.

The Washington Post is expanding its use of Heliograf, its in-house automated storytelling technology, enabling The Post to cover all Washington, D.C.-area high school football games every week.

“Heliograf is creating a new model for hyperlocal coverage,” said Jeremy Gilbert, The Post’s director of strategic initiatives. “In the past, it would not have been possible for The Post to staff more than a handful of the most significant games each week. Now, we’ll be able to cover any game that we have data for, giving the teams and fans near-instant coverage to read and share.”

Each game story will draw from scoring plays, individual player statistics and quarterly score changes, along with The Post’s own weekly Top 20 regional rankings. The stories will be automatically updated each week using box-score data submitted by high school football coaches, and shared on The Post’s Twitter account for high school sports: @WashPostHS. See a story here

“Technology like Heliograf can be transformative for a newsroom, greatly expanding the breadth of coverage and allowing journalists to focus more on in-depth reporting,” said Scot Gillespie, Chief Technology Officer at The Post. “This thinking permeates across all of the products that are part of Arc Publishing, ensuring the tools we build will help newsrooms be more productive, tell more stories and reach a broader audience.”

TACCLE AI MOOC

3.7 Case Study: Creation of Content

How to use AI to improve content creation

Case study : The Washington Post’s “robot reporter,” called Heliograf

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