

Coders Can’t Put Writers Out Of A Job Yet, But We’d Better Watch Our Backs - petercooper
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/25/coders-cant-put-writers-out-of-a-job-yet-but-wed-better-watch-our-backs/

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EzGraphs
No doubt automation will eliminate certain tasks that are currently done by
humans. But there are only so many where bots can replace people. Best I can
see for the near future, bots could very capably create "news spam." More
tweets anyone?

There are just too many aspects of human language that comprise an actual
piece of literature that are not dealt with in a particularly integrated way
by current AI/NLP techniques. Narrative structure is a really fuzzy thing in
certain respects and has an immense impact on a reader. Symbolism, metaphor,
and various idioms are learned through personal interactions and require a
sensitivity to the author's role and intended audience.

Of course I just may be out of touch. Have there really been such significant
advances in computer generated journalism/writing?

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EzGraphs
Looks like someone is selling it:
<http://www.narrativescience.com/technology/>

~~~
ericclemmons
This company was mentioned in the article as well. I've actually used them for
doing a test run of generated content for a specific niche (I prefer
developing, not writing) and found that once the article calls for something
"meatier" like analysis, comparing events to other trends, or generally just
being longer than 200 words, the artificial nature of it is glaringly obvious.

Much like true voice recognition, I doubt quality, automated journalism is
even a decade off. Humans get better and better at identifying subtle
differences.

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anamax
See Hammond's ee380 talk, linked to at
[http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/winter-
schedule-20112012...](http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/winter-
schedule-20112012.html) .

This year's EE380 (<http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/> ) will have many
talks of comparable quality.

