The Associated Press (AP) is looking to use a robot that could publish breaking business stories by July.
The news outlet said the move would let it produce more stories, stating it would be able to go from releasing 300 stories to as many as 4,400 stories in "roughly the same time it took our reporters," according to the Huffington Post.
The AP added that jobs will not be cut with the introduction of the automation technology, and that, instead, it would be "doubling down on the journalism" with reports from the robot.
"This is about using technology to free journalists to do more journalism and less data processing, not about eliminating jobs," the company explained. "Most of the staff has been receptive to the effort and involved for the past few months of discussion."
The automated system is a combination of technology from Automated Insights and Zacks Investment Research. Lou Ferrara, AP managing editor, said the outlet created its template for earnings reports to reflect the company's style and standards for journalism. The company will be able to use the system to produce over 10 times the amount of earnings stories than it did in past quarters, Mashable reported.
Automation technology is becoming a more common tool used by media and tech companies, since Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, Yahoo and similar outlets need algorithms for providing content to their consumers.
The AP's announcement of its new tool follows Japan's recent introduction of the world's first news anchor robot, which doesn't experience any speech issues while reading the news, the Huffington Post reported.
Other news organizations have experimented with automation technology, such as the Los Angeles Times, which used a specific algorithm to publish a story about an earthquake in the area in March. The company published the story in just almost three seconds and became the first news outlet to report on the event.
The New York Times uses the technology for some of its announcements about weddings, and Automated Insight uses it for recaps on fantasy football matchups.
The AP has also been experimenting with robot for its sports stories, with Ferrara saying that the outlet wants to use the technology on "results stories for lower-audience sports."
