Researchers at Cal Poly and University of Miami are developing an artificial intelligence system to auto-generate coverage of state and local governments.
The research team says the coming tool will be a prototype news wire service, which will capture narrative content from state and local governments that can be used as story data by journalists.
“The intent is to help local news organizations by augmenting their staff,” said Lindsay Grace, University of Miami School of Communication’s Knight Chair of Interactive Media and a co-lead researcher on the project.
“The combination of AI and natural language processing creates an app to do some of the basic elements of reporting: collecting quotes, who said what,” Grace says. “What we’re doing is taking that data and converting it to journalistic prose.
“We’ll start the reporting for you, but we’re not looking at replacing journalists.”
The system will rely on algorithms and AI-generated writing to deliver on its promise, according to the researchers.
Funding for the project comes from a $200,000 grant from the Knight Foundation.
In other AI-generated writing news:
*AI-Driven Writer Job Loss May Manifest on a Case-by-Case Basis, Expert Says: Fears that AI-generated writing and similar AI technologies will steal writers’ jobs will most likely play-out on a case-by-case basis, according to AI news industry heavyweight Francesco Marconi.
Historically, some companies have used automation to “reduce operational costs” — i.e., eliminate jobs with automation – rather than create other jobs within the organization for workers displaced by automation, according to Marconi.
“This is also a legitimate concern with regard to AI,” Marconi observes in his new book, “Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism.”
Indeed, AI-generated writing service provider Ginnie.ai, for example, boldly states that the number one benefit of its auto-generator of written product descriptions is: No Writing Team Required.
“By utilizing an AI-powered content creator, you’re taking production off the plates of a copywriting team and into a software application that handles the writing process itself,” Ginnie.ai states in a recent blog post.
Fortunately for human writers, at least some writer-centric organizations implementing AI have taken a different tack, according to Marconi.
“A more proactive and strategic approach to this issue is exemplified by organizations such as the Associated Press,” Marconi observes.
Since 2014, the Associated Press has used the savings it has gained from automated writing to train reporters in immersive media and digital storytelling, according to Marconi.
“Not only was there no job loss,” Marconi observes. “There were new jobs created, such as that of ‘automation editor.'”
A longtime player in AI-generated news, Marconi helped spearhead AI implementations at The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press.
Currently, Marconi is leading a new AI-generated writing and AI news tool company, Applied XLabs.
The startup – which is partnering with the Boston Globe — is promising to develop AI tools that will auto-analyze databases to serve-up story ideas, insights and other news content.
*Automated Robots Quickly Surfacing Coronavirus News: A Swedish publisher has been quickly surfacing breaking news on the Coronavirus by using automated robots to scan the Web.
The system auto-scans 21 regional healthcare Web sites every second for breaking news, according to Michael Poromaa, managing editor, Aftonbladet.
Dubbed ‘Corona Watch,’ the bots surfaced 158 notifications about Coronavirus in their first week of use.
Those alerts were published as quick updates on Aftonbladet, or were developed into full-fledged articles, according to Poromaa.
Corona Watch is powered by AI-generated writing firm United Robots.
*Prototype AI Tech Directly Transforms Thought-To-Text: Researchers have come up with AI software that can render text directly from human thought.
Essentially, the tech grabs words by reading neural patterns in the brain — as the test subject is talking aloud.
While the thought-to-text software is far from ideal – it relies on numerous, hair-thin electrodes driven into the human brain to retrieve brain signals — researchers say it’s a start.
*Microsoft Promises Enhancements to it’s AI Editor: The tech goliath says an overhaul of its AI editor for Microsoft 365 will soon offer users the ability to rewrite any sentence.
Simply highlight a sentence that needs help, right-click and the AI will present you with a number of sentence alternatives.
“This is one of the first times we’ve actually used deep neural networks to provide writing suggestions or intelligence,” says Susan Hendrich, Microsoft’s group program manager of AI and NLP for Office.
“It’s a pretty big deal for us,” Hendrich adds.
Microsoft 365 is the company’s new name for the old Microsoft Office 365, beginning April 21.
*AI-Generated Writing Firm Named a Top Ten Most Innovative AI Start-Up: Persado has been recognized by Fast Company as a key AI start-up to watch in 2020.
Persado turned heads last summer when it inked a five-year deal with Chase to auto-generate short ads and slogans for the bank’s credit card and mortgage businesses.
Persado is perhaps best known for enabling companies to auto-generate subject heads for email marketing.
*AI-Generated Writing Firm Launches New Pharma / Fintech Software: Automated writing pioneer Yseop has rolled-out new software that enables financial and pharmaceutical firms to quickly auto-generate written reports from their company databases.
The off-the-shelf solution is designed to offer a less expensive alternative to similar AI software, which often needs to be custom-made for a company or organization.
Yseop took great pains to ensure its off-the-shelf solution will work for all financial and pharmaceutical companies by drawing on its 10 years of experience developing similar solutions for Sanofi, Moody’s and BNP Paribas, according to a blog post by the company.
*Financial Tech Software Provider Partners With AI-Generated Writing Firm: Financial tech solutions provider Finastra is now offering AI chatbots for banks in its FusionStore.
The tech – provided by AI-generated writing firm ActiveAi – offers banks the opportunity to employ AI chatbots for customer service.
Ideally, the chatbots work by ‘listening’ to customer requests over the Web and responding via AI-generated chat.
“Conversational banking is the next big thing in consumer banking,” according to Eli Rosner, chief product and technology officer, Finastra.
*AI-Generated Writing: At-the-Ready With Insightful Reports: AI-generated software offers businesses a unique opportunity to auto-generate company reports from their company databases, according to a new report from Lux Research.
Essentially, the tech can auto-generate such reports in a fraction of the time it takes to produce the reports conventionally — think minutes or hours instead of weeks or months.
“When utilized effectively, machine learning can quickly mine data to produce actionable insights, significantly decreasing the time it takes for a comprehensive analysis to be performed,” says Kevin See, PhD.
He’s vice president, digital products, at Lux Research.
For more information on this trend, check out, “Company Reports That Write Themselves,” by Joe Dysart.
*Getting a Grip on Artificial Intelligence: Forbes contributor Bernard Marr has put together his list of the 10 best free online courses in AI and machine learning for 2020.
Some of the courses are taught by leading companies and organizations, such as Google, Microsoft, Stanford University and Helsinki University.
Others are taught by AI pioneers, such as Andrew Ng, Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun.
Either way, these courses will give you an opportunity to see how AI-generated writing will play a part in AI’s remaking of the world as we know it.
*Special Feature: Company Reports That Write Themselves
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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.