Google is funding the creation of software that writes local news stories

Post by mc32 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:42 PM UTC

nkozyra wrote: post #23

mc32 wrote: post #11

At least in the near future, this has the potential to make facts-and-figures based news less biased (less influenced by author idiosyncrasies). Personally, I would rather news not be laden with personal flourishes that authors add either as filler or due to personal opinion. I do imagine further into the future, the automated systems will be "improved" with tone and bias to better fit the tastes of the individual re…

Presentation of facts alone doesn't really preclude bias, though. Certainly all journalists carry bias - and styleguides and journalistic standards are intended to mitigate this - but any software intended to encapsulate some facts into some allotted space will also carry bias. Source/quote selection and omission will always lend some bias and news by nature has a finite space. Print news in particular imposes bias t…

Post by untog » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:44 PM UTC

kronos29296 wrote: post #15

What guarantee is there that the published news isn't fake? This might start something like viral fake facebook posts. We already have enough of those. Now we have automated fake news generator where you post your own fake news for free. This is what it will become one day. Hope they have something to stop it.

Post by akhilcacharya » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #2

I ran across this article while researching a stock and as I read, I kept thinking, "This was not written by a person. This was written by software." [0] I checked the attribution, and there is a person's name on it. Sure, any hack can write and publish and this is probably just another example. But the odd style doesn't even strike me as 'writing the way I think' or writing and publishing quickly without editing. Fo…

Post by tokyoSurfer » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:49 PM UTC

jimrandomh wrote: post #17

I would strongly prefer that robo-written news not exist, not appear in the results of any searches I make, and not appear in any feed that I read. It is pollution that makes real information and insight harder to find. Does anyone actually like this stuff?

Post by tokyoSurfer » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:51 PM UTC

kronos29296 wrote: post #15

What guarantee is there that the published news isn't fake? This might start something like viral fake facebook posts. We already have enough of those. Now we have automated fake news generator where you post your own fake news for free. This is what it will become one day. Hope they have something to stop it.