Robot 'editor' reports about Jiuzhaigou quake 25 secs after disaster hit

CGTN photo

It took 25 seconds for the news of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that hit southwest China's Sichuan Province on Tuesday to emerge.

The temblor struck Jiuzhaigou County at 9:19 p.m., and as people were catching their breath and rescuers fetching their tools and equipment, a robot editor at the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) managed to publish a comprehensive news release about the disaster faster than the blink of an eye.

The 540-character piece, along with four maps, specified the time and magnitude of the quake, and the coordinates of its epicenter. It also detailed the demography of the quake-hit region and reviewed the latest weather forecasts.

The robot is part of the earthquake rapid-report project, which was launched in 2009 with the aim of compiling an accurate earthquake report within seconds of its occurrence.