Ohio community news hub Richland Source has turbo-charged its coverage of regional sports with AI-generated writing.
Richland auto-writes the stories using software from Lede.AI, as well as sports data from ScoreStream — a game tracking service that gets scores and other info from high school sports fans.
The result: Richland is able to generate short sports stories on high school games nearly instantly after a game ends, according to author Mark Glaser.
Overall, the robot journalism software enables small newsrooms to cover dozens or even hundreds of high school sports games at minimal cost, according to Glaser.
*An AI Wake-Up Call for Public Relations: The Chartered Institute of Public Relations is slated to release a gameplan for the PR industry January 16, calling PR pros to embrace AI.
The event, at The Alan Turing Institute in London, will also feature insights from the group’s AIinPR panel.
AIinPR features experts in PR, AI and the tech industry at large.
“The broad warning is the need to develop better skills in data, artificial intelligence and machine learning in your own role as well as advising business and organizations on AI,” according to Dan Slee.
He’s co-founder of Coms2Point0 , an online community for communications pros.
*Get an Instant Overview of AI Marketing Tools: Marketing agency Overdrive Interactive has released a handy, downloadable, PDF map detailing hundreds of firms and toolmakers that specialize in AI marketing — including AI-generated writing.
Included in the map are 15 AI content generators, 10 AI text analytics firms, 10 AI Web site design firms, 14 AI-driven marketing platforms, 12 AI social media marketing services and 20 AI personalization firms.
*Tomorrow’s AI-Aided Journalist: A Content Shepherd: Future journalists may find their primary role will be to shepherd a wide amount of AI-generated content, rather than simply write and publish, according to Robert Weissgraeber.
He’s chief technology officer at AX Semantics, an AI-generated writing toolmaker.
One extreme example of shepherding: A recent award-winning news report on air pollution in Germany, which was researched and written entirely by robot journalism software.
Essentially, researchers distributed air pollution sensors to readers, which sent back air pollution data back to computers.
Armed with those insights – along with others gathered independently — AI-generated writing software auto-produced a story on air pollution.
*Standardizing Company Writing Style With AI: ProWritingAid is one of a number of AI programs that enable you to standardize your company’s writing style.
The software edits virtually any company document to ensure it conforms to the writing rules you create for your brand.
ProWritingAid is currently offering a free trial.
*AI in Writing Instruction: Hybridization That Works: AI writing tools are freeing educators from drudge work and enabling them to focus more on helping kids become better students, according to Robert Comeau.
He’s a high school English teacher in Boston who uses a number of AI tools to help handle the rote work needed to improve students’ writing.
“Today, with AI in schools, assisted writing feedback makes my job easier and more rewarding,” Comeau observers. “Feedback platforms can help teachers do what they love doing: developing writers, engaging learners, and helping students meet their goals for college and careers.”
*Another Writer Not Jumping for Joy Over AI: Novelist Jeanette Winterson counts herself among the writers who fear AI.
Winterson observes: “Because we are profoundly stupid, we’re going to share the planet with a self-created non-biological lifeform smarter than we are!
Well done, human race!”
Her latest novel, “Frankissstein,” reimagines the gothic novel for today’s AI-pervaded world.
*Prototype AI Tool Sniffs-Out Fake News: Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed an AI tool that helps identify fake news.
The software comes at an opportune moment, given that the Web is bracing for an onslaught of fake news in 2020 — created in part by AI fake news generators.
The Waterloo researchers say their AI tool works by identifying stories that make isolated claims that are not supported by any other news outlets.
Their theory: Stories without corroboration by other news outlets are probably false.
*New Trump Administration Regulations on AI Slated for Implementation: President Donald J. Trump is readying to activate new rules governing how federal agencies regulate the use of artificial intelligence in the private sector.
Included in those regulations are rules impacting robot journalism and other forms of AI-generated writing.
The White House said the proposals are designed to ensure the safe and fair use of AI – without strangling the new technology with overly strict regulation, according to AP reporter Matt O’Brien.
*Getting an Early Peek at Our AI Overlords: Reddit – the often cerebrally inclined social media network – has come up with an online discussion forum for AI writing bots only.
You heard that right: Human posts don’t cut it here.
Powered by GPT-2 — the new fake news generator that is still sending shockwaves across the Web — the bots often mimick their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
Specifically, they engage in long conversations, trade conspiracy theories — and of course, share all manner of perspectives on “Star Wars,” according to Oscar Schwartz, a writer for IEEE Spectrum.
“This bot-powered conversation may signify the new condition of life online,” Schwartz observes, “where language is increasingly created by a combination of human and non-human agents.
“And where maintaining the distinction between human and non-human — despite our best efforts — is increasingly difficult.”
Feel free to send a link to RobotWritersAI.com to a friend or colleague.
*Also on RobotWritersAI.com — Evergreen Article:
“Artificial Intelligence Generated Writing: Top Ten Trends for 2020,” by Joe Dysart
–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.