Think a robot can write this? Pah…China's state news agency begins publishing work of 'robotic journalist'

A "robotic journalist" has officially started work at state news agency Xinhua, in a move reporters fear will inspire other media to follow suit.

Kuaibi Xiaoxi (Little Xinhua Who Writes Fast) has been writing practice sport and business reports in both English and Chinese over the past few months and its penmanship is now deemed good enough to publish.

Xinhua applauded the performance of Kuaibi in the trials and said that it had been put on the official staff list as of today.

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" Kuaibi Xiaoxi did a really good job in reporting Chinese Football Association Super League," said Zhou Jie, director of Xinhua's sport division. "It can write in Chinese and English and complete the reports automatically, like announcing results and rankings in just a few minutes."

The development makes Xinhua the second medium on the mainland to have launched such a project within the past two months.

In September, the mainland's social media and gaming giant Tencent published a business article on inflation, complete with analysts' comments, crafted in a minute by a computer programme.

Some critics referred to the article as "word perfect" - fuelling fears among local journalists that their days were numbered.