"StatSheet, a Durham, N.C., company... serves up sports statistics in monster-size portions... The company, with nine employees, is working to endow software with the ability to turn game statistics into articles about college basketball games."                             
- Randall Stross, NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28digi.html 
    The transformation from print to online journalism continues to increase at astounding levels, yet this is a new technology completely. Is it far fetched to envision computers writing articles in the future, or rather in the now? It makes sense in the business sense because it is far more cost efficient. Perhaps more importantly, computers capable of performing this new skill can cover smaller schools that don't attract the same national attention that the powerful Division I colleges do, such as Ohio State and USC. The powerhouse schools have a plethora of writers covering their games, while the smaller schools have maybe a dozen. With the statistical analysis, all games can be thoroughly covered.
     There is more to cause me to believe this is quite risky. Without the common sense of a human writer, routine words can be missed. An example in the article is when the computer put "victory over Buckeyes." Forgetting "The Buckeyes," the article seems sloppy and lacks precision. This is the fine-tuning that only a human can take thorough care in. More importantly is the human effect. Computers lack the emotion and unique creativity that humans exert on a daily basis and it doesn't seem plausible for computers to exert human traits that engage readers. If human writing can be so easily replaced, we are seemingly destined to relinquish control in many more jobs. Any thoughts?