The Atlantic Wire :: Narrative Science's claim that its algorithm-driven journalism will one day win a Pulitzer, has human journalists quivering, yet we're still not convinced it's all that threatening to the future of journalism. Upon first looking at Narrative Science, a company that programs computers to do journalists' jobs, about a month ago, the not-very engaging text didn't scare us. Yet co-founder Kristian Hammond has given journalists cause for worry, telling Wired's Steven Levy in this month's issue that his robots will win that most prestigious prize in the next five years.

[Rebecca Greenfield:] (Kristian Hammond, Narrative Science) predicts that bots will write more than 90 percent of the news in 15 years. Those predictions are indeed scary. It's a scary prediction, mostly because it's a scary vision for what Hammond thinks journalism is.

Discussed by Steven Levy, Wired, in his post on Google+:

[Steven Levy 7:42 PM - Public (Google+):] Last December I met Kris Hammond of Narrative Science, a company that's developed tech for computers to write news stores straight from data. I asked him in 15 years what percentage of news stories would be written by machines. He tried to avoid answering, but finally said, "Over 90%." I decided right then to write a story about his company. Not sure that his number is right, but I am convinced that some computers will get scoops that humans can't.

HT: Nieman Lab in a recent tweet here:

Robot journalism won't overtake human journalism because robot journalism isn't journalism nie.mn/JafANd

— Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) April 25, 2012

Continue to read Rebecca Greenfield, www.theatlanticwire.com

"Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?" - Continue to read Steven Levy, www.wired.com