The Guardian's new US newspaper has a robot editor-in-chief
There's something a little different about the editor for The Guardian's new monthly US print edition: there isn't one. Set to launch Wednesday, #Open001 is being created using a proprietary algorithm rather than people (and we thought the media was dying!). The 5,000 paper run will be available for free at several advertising agencies. Articles are selected from the paper's online edition, based on how they performed on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Some of the stories set to be included in this month's edition include "Robots and sex: creepy or cool?" and "Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg: who are you calling bossy." Captivating, right?
In a world where publications are trying to compete with the fast online world and viral news sites packed with automated content, it's not surprising a newspaper would try to adopt an inexpensive human-free model. This isn't even the first time The Guardian has replaced people with our digital overlords. It's already putting out a weekly print edition in London called "Good Long Read" using the same algorithm. The paper's layout designer is also a robot, which means it can be created even faster. Newspaper Club, that handles the design and printing, says it's very close to process where one person can create a paper in under an hour. Whether it's a paper full of stories we want to read is another question entirely.
