A series of automated high school football reports published by Gannett newspapers in August 2023, in which a team won 'a close encounter of the athletic kind' and matches were described with every player's name missing and the town's name repeated. The recaps were produced by a service called LedeAI; screenshots went round, and Gannett paused the experiment. Recorded as the moment local news met the template.
Seen in the Columbus Dispatch with the placeholder '[[WINNING_TEAM_MASCOT]]' left in one line, which is the record's favourite detail because it is the seam showing.
Paused in August 2023. Survived by the phrase 'close encounter of the athletic kind', which lives on in every thread about what the machines will do to the local paper.
Sports writing in which the score was correct and nothing else was information, generated for towns whose papers no longer had anyone to sit in the stands.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
