What’s the tipoff that this item on the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier’s website wasn’t written by a reporter? I mean, besides the byline being “Lede AI Sports Desk.”
A reporter or even “person at the sports desk taking phone calls” would say simply East Marshall, or East Marshall of Le Grand. Only a bot would use the convention depicted here. Notably, the convention used by the state associations is “East Marshall, Le Grand”, as seen on the IGHSAU’s 2023-24 BEDS list.
The remaining two sentences are 1) the date of their last meeting — without a score — and 2) each team’s previous opponents — without scores. There is no indication where this game was even played (Hudson), unless there’s an automatic assumption of home team first.
A press release from Lede AI last March touted its relationship with Lee Enterprises (owner of the Courier and other papers). The big payoff, of course, is in search engine optimization. The website Futurism wrote at the beginning of the school year how multiple media chains across the country are using Lede AI.
I’m not sure how this is an improvement over a catchall page with scores from across the region or state, perhaps something related to multiple links getting hits instead of one. Someone who really wanted to know probably would’ve gone to the IHSAA’s or IGHSAU’s websites — or would have until recently, because that part has been outsourced too.
