Invasion of the Robo-Editors

Automated news services can gather headlines in a flash. Is there still room for the human touch? Is there still room for the human touch?

I'm going on strike. That was my first thought when I heard that the guys at Google had developed a computerized news editor that could do for free what I do for a living--track news and pull the most important stories together into a vibrant, continuously updated Web page. My website is TIME.com Theirs is Google News. But I get paid for what I do, while Google's news editor gets no compensation--no salary, no medical, no free T shirts from failing dotcoms. If West Coast dockworkers can trigger a labor dispute because automation threatens to thin their ranks, why...

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