Friday, November 13, 2009

Can Computers Really Replace Journalists?

I suspect this error was made by a computer rather than a human.

Referring to Tokyo airport the interviewee is quoted as saying: "...it's 65km out, by bus it's about one.five hours, by taxi it can cost anything up to $300."

Obviously the interviewee actually spoke the words "one point five hours" or "one and a half hours", which are commonly written as 1.5 hours. Simple mistake - for a computer.

This error appeared in this article about a Qantas nightmare.

It's

So let's hope more real-life flesh-and-blood journalists get a crack at writing articles in future.