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Associated Press enlists AI bots to report on Minor League baseball matches

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By John Glenday, Reporter

July 4, 2016 | 2 min read

The Associated Press has revealed it is now begun employing AI powered bots to report on Minor League baseball matches nationally, after striking a deal to source data direct from MLB Advanced Media, the league’s official statistics provider.

This will see computer written articles published for matches in which human writers were not in attendance in near real time with a delay of just minutes.

Barry Bedlan, AP’s deputy director of sports products, said: “We have to make sure anything that moves on the wire is 100 per cent accurate. But once you have properly configured the software then accuracy is not in question.

Seeking to allay fears that the technology could be used to put sports writers out of a job Bedlan pointed out that the technique was only possible in sectors in which accurate real-time results could be guaranteed.

He said: “There are so many possibilities but…if a sports organization cannot give us 100 per cent stamp of approval on accuracy for hours or even days that does not work, it has lost its news value for a newspaper, broadcaster or website.”

AP has been a leader in the field of automated reporting having embraced artificial intelligence software to cover financial results since July 2014.

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