While AI-generated writing has yet to produce a movie script of any worth, Guardian film critic Steve Rose says start-ups are still angling to forge a tool that will.
ScriptBook, for example, is developing an AI-generated writing tool that will suggest scenes for sci-fi movies when screenwriters get stuck.
In the meantime, Hollywood is already using AI analytics to help predict which combinations of ideas, movie scripts and actors will translate into box office gold, according to Rose.
Not surprisingly, Rose wonders where this is all going.
“Could it be that by embracing AI, Hollywood is unwittingly building an equivalent of the Terminator movies’ Skynet?” Rose observes.
“Or, in a slightly less apocalyptic scenario, are we looking at a future where movies are personally tailored to individual viewers?”
In other AI-generated writing news:
*Invasion of the AI Polit-Bots: The Atlantic predicts that much of the political discourse on social media in coming years will be hijacked by bots driven by AI-generated writing.
Essentially, bots championing varying political perspectives have been — and will be — shouting at each other on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social media networks — sans the need for any human participation.
Plus, the polit-bots are getting very sneaky. “Over the years, algorithmic bots have evolved to have personas,” observes Bruce Schneir, a fellow and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“They have fake names, fake bios, and fake photos—sometimes generated by AI. Instead of endlessly spewing propaganda, they post only occasionally.
“Researchers can detect that these are bots and not people, based on their patterns of posting. But the bot technology is getting better all the time, outpacing tracking attempts. Future groups won’t be so easily identified.”
*AI-Automated Content Marketing: A Brief Primer: Smart Insights offers a helpful rundown on key tools you can use to create, personalize and curate content using AI.
“AI is all set to speed-up the content creation process in every industry, making the process of creating effective content marketing strategies easy and quick,” observes author Kevin Reis.
Reis is an SEO specialist with 10 years experience and currently the senior SEO manager at Shopify.
*Symposium on AI and News Media Slated for June: The University of Amsterdam is hosting a symposium on AI and media in June.
The focus: “Robots, Recommenders and Responsibility: Where should the media go with AI?”
The premise of the symposium is that AI-driven tools are more than simple tools.
Instead, such tools are part of a more structural transformation of what it means to make news, to engage with the audience, and to be an informed citizen, according to the symposium organizers.
*Will AI Render Human Copywriters Obsolete?: A Writer Reflects: Veteran copywriter Lai Chee Seng believes there will still be a place for human copywriters as AI-generated writing proliferates.
“First, I think that robots will very likely replace many copywriters in the market – if they are the type to write robotic, unengaging copy,” Seng observes. “In which case, I think it is a good thing.”
“Second, I think this disruption is good. It’s an opportunity for copywriters to take stock and upgrade their skills,” he adds. “Come on — machines are made by humans to serve humans.”
*AI’s Impact on Public Relations: A Seasoned Pro Weighs In: Mike Kaput, director of marketing at the Marketing AI Institute, offers his take on 20 key ways AI is changing public relations.
Critical on his list:
*AI that auto-generates press releases and media reports
*AI that creates custom story angles for journalists, based on journalists’ interests, past coverage, personalities and current news trends
“It’s not a stretch to imagine AI automating or augmenting the majority of tasks PR and communications pros do in the next three-to-five years,” Kaput observes. “Which means you need to understand AI technology and its use cases to thrive.”
*Making Peace with AI: A Gameplan for the Future of PR: Daniela Hamill, a young PR pro just launching her career, has decided to retrofit her skill set to feature AI savvy as much as possible.
“As I enter into the world of PR, I will have to adapt to an ever-changing industry,” Hamill observes.
“And while some of my roles and responsibilities will be taken over by artificial intelligence in the near future, it’s fair to say that the creativity, personal and human elements of PR can be left to the pros — the human ones.”
*AI-Generated Writing: A Hit With Financial Firms: T. Rowe Price, Credit Suisse, and USAA are all using AI-generated writing to write financial reports, according to Tom Simonite, a writer for MIT’s Technology Review.
Essentially, the same AI software that many top newspapers have been using to automate article writing is now being used by these financial firms to auto-generate financial reports.
Financial firms’ leveraging of AI mimics that of newspapers: Using software that reaches down into databases to create short stories from that data.
As at news outlets, financial firms’ use of AI-generated writing software alleviates the need for human writers to create that content.
“It goes from the job of a small army of people — over weeks — to just a few seconds,” says Stuart Frankel, Narrative Science’s CEO. “We do 10-to-15-page documents for some financial clients.”
Adds Simonite: “Companies can also tune Quill’s (an AI software program) style and use of language based on what they need it to write.
“It can accentuate the positive in marketing copy, or go for exhaustive detail in a regulatory filing, for example.”
Many companies across the business spectrum are using AI-generated writing to auto-write reports from their company databases.
For an in-depth look at the trend, check-out “Company Reports That Write Themselves,” by Joe Dysart.
*AI and the Newsroom: A Podcast: Charlie Beckett offers his perspective on how AI-generated writing and similar AI technologies are transforming the newsroom.
Beckett is director of the Media Policy Project, sponsored by the London School of Economics and Political Science.
*Futurist: Trump’s Proposed AI Regs a Farce: James Kobielus, research director at Futurum Research, takes a dim view of new AI rules proposed by the Trump Administration.
“When you look at it, these principles are designed to hamstring efforts by federal agencies to ensure that private businesses manage AI responsibly for the benefit of all Americans,” Kobielus observes.
“More to the point, Trump’s primary interest in AI is nationalistic,” Kobielus. He wants to use AI as a weapons-grade asset to bolster US global dominance.
Included in the industries slated to be regulated by Trump’s proposed rules: AI-generated writing.
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–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.