WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? “Journalists to use ‘immune system’ software against fake news.” The reliance on ‘bots instead of real live humans (we used to call them “editors”– how quaint!) has already caused problems in financial reporting, which relies on automation. One Business Insider story pointed out that:

Headline price figures for Amazon and for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, were displaying as down by more than 80% as a result of the error, which emerged after US markets closed.

Like automated financial reporting that depends on data input, General Assignment news is not immune to robo-errors. This year, the LATimes “Quakebot” incorrectly reported an earthquake that happened in 1925, and Facebook promoted a bogus story that Megyn Kelly was fired for “being a traitor.” Even super gay-friendly Google’s YouTube had a faulty algorithm that inadvertently censored any YouTube videos even remotely gay-themed.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.