Increasing numbers of writers and editors cast a wary eye at the ongoing proliferation of automated writing this year — wondering if their jobs would be put on the AI chopping block next.
Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, candidly warned that some news publishers appear extremely inclined to gut newsrooms and replace as many writers as possible with robots.
And renowned fiction writer Stephen Marche sent out a stark warning that AI-generated writing will fundamentally transform the prospects of every professional writer.
Even so, many other writers were gung-ho on AI writing, including Alex Kantrowitz, who insisted AI tools don’t threaten him — they simply make him a better writer.
And JournalismAI presented a full week of online meetings before the close of the year championing AI’s upside — thanks in part to generous funding from the Google News Initiative.
Meanwhile, reports continued to surface on new implementations of robot writing at ever more news outlets.
And some academics promoted the idea of integrating automated writing tools into the curriculums of every college and university.
Plus, RobotWritersAI.com released four key reports, designed to help writers and others make sense of how AI is remaking the profession of writing as we know it.
Here’s detail on the trends that helped shape the state of AI-generated writing in 2021:
*AI-Generated Writing’s Threat to Writers: Very Real: Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, believes AI-generated writing represents a real threat to writers.
Specifically: The growing use of AI to automate the writing of sports, real estate, traffic, weather, financial and other data-intensive news stories.
Observes Kennedy: “It sounds innocuous enough, given that much of this work would probably go undone if it couldn’t be automated.
“But let’s curb our enthusiasm.
“Let me introduce you to the two most bottom line-obsessed newspaper publishers in the United States: Alden Global Capital and Gannett.
“If they could, they’d unleash the algorithms to cover everything up-to-and-including city council meetings, mayoral speeches and development proposals.
“And if they could figure out how to program the robots to write human-interest stories and investigative reports, well, they’d do that too.”
Bottom-line: Kennedy warns writers and others to dismiss the sugar-coated evangelism of AI writing, which only presents the upside of AI.
In a very real sense, Kennedy predicts AI — for all its benefits — is also robbing current and future writers of jobs and opportunities.
Observes Kennedy: “The highly skilled people whom I used to pay to transcribe my interviews no longer have those jobs.
“High school students who might have gotten an opportunity to write-up the exploits of their sports teams for a few bucks have been deprived of a chance at an early connection with news — an experience that might have turned them into paying customers or even journalists when they got older.
“And local news — much of which is already produced at distant outposts, some of them overseas — is about to become that much more impersonal and removed from the communities they serve.”
*For All Writers, Automation Looms: Renowned author Stephen Marche warns that AI-generated writing is poised to fundamentally automate the world of writing.
Observes Marche in “The New Yorker” Magazine: “Whatever field you are in, if it uses language, it is about to be transformed.
“The changes that are coming are fundamental to every method of speaking and writing that presently exists.”
Marche’s perspective was triggered, in part, by his use of Sudowrite.
It’s an AI-generated writing tool designed to mimic the style of any author.
Marche put Sudowrite through its paces, prompting it to imitate the style of novelist Franz Kafka — and was dazzled.
Observes Marche: “Brute computational power is why Sudowrite can write like Kafka.”
*A Scribe on AI: How AI Made Me a Better Writer: Count Alex Kantrowitz among those who are all-in on AI-generated writing.
Observes Kantrowitz: “Over the past two years, I’ve adopted AI software at every opportunity and can report that the productivity gain is absurd.
“AI has helped me cut down on menial work and spend more time on creativity — realizing a long-prophesied promise about the technology.
“It’s also teaching me to write tighter and with more precision, and it’s shockingly good in this regard.
“Some ‘experts’ say AI will replace writers. That’s far off.
“Instead, it will make us better.”
*AI in Journalism: The Upside: JournalismAI hosted a free online conference at the close of 2021 accenting the upside of retrofitting newsrooms with artificial intelligence.
It was an important online meeting for any editor or writer seeking an update on AI’s current and future impact on journalism jobs.
Videos of all the sessions are available on YouTube.
Specific sessions include expert analysis by AI practitioners on how AI is:
~Automating the production of news stories
~Mining long-form news stories to auto-produce shorter, ‘snackable’ news content
~Automating the production of feature stories
~Being adopted by small and mid-sized news organizations — despite its sometimes hefty price tag
Here’s a curated guide to sessions most closely focused on how AI is automating — and auto-monitoring — news production.
*Canadian University Launching Robotic News Service: Ryerson University is preparing to launch a professional automated news service, which will feed its stories to the Canadian Press wire service.
The new venture will be staffed by student journalists and data analysts.
They’ll work together to run fresh data through reusable story templates to auto-generate news stories.
Ryerson will be focusing on creating hyperlocal news stories with the service.
It’s a similar approach used by Radar, a UK-based automated news service.
Radar has been auto-generating highly localized news stories using hyperlocal data for a few years now.
*U.S. Open Coverage: Now Automated: IBM is serving-up auto-generated micro-stories featuring its predictions on the probable outcomes of every tennis match scheduled for the U.S. Open this year.
Fed by data on each player — along with news media mentions about the players — IBM runs the info through its AI-powered super-computer Watson to come up with picks on winners and losers.
The result: Each micro-story features head-and-shoulders shots of the two players up top, followed by a pithy quote about each.
And the story closes with IBM’s short-and-sweet written analysis on the match-up.
That breakdown is a number-cruncher’s delight, with supercomputer insights on tennis player Novak Djokovic, for example, like:
~Through the 1st Round, he (Djokovic) has a percentage of points with winners of 28%, 2nd among players in the field of 128
~Djokovic’s percentage of errors from the backhand is 56%, ranking 10th in the field
Meanwhile, Watson’s take on Djokovic’s opponent, Tallon Griekspoor, included:
~Through the 1st Round, his (Griekspoor’s) fastest serve speed is 149 MPH (240 KMH), 2nd among players in the field of 128
~Griekspoor’s percentage of points with backhand errors is 4%, versus 7% for Djokovic
All told, IBM’s auto-generated micro-stories are a formidable example of how AI can slice-and-dice the prospective outcome of a sports match in a way that is virtually impossible for even a team of human sports writers to equal — given the same amount of time to do their own analysis.
*Study: 15% of News Stories Now Auto-Generated by AI at Key News Outlets: A new academic study finds that 15% of news stories are now automatically generated at leading news outlets using AI.
Most of the 130 AI implementations pinpointed by the researchers were found at larger news organizations — heavy hitters that have the deep pockets to hire AI experts and experiment with the technology.
John Conway, vice president, WRAL Digital, Capitol Broadcasting Group — interviewed by the researchers — says the work AI can do is “work that reporters could do without machines, but it would take much longer.
“I see a big benefit of AI as the reallocation of resources, especially for smaller newsrooms.”
*Education: Age of the Hybrid Writer Beckons: Given that most students already have easy access to AI writing tools, it may be time to legitimize the tech’s use in the classroom, according to Lucinda McKnight.
McKnight is a senior lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum at Deakin University.
Observes McNight: “Many student writers are already using AI writing tools.
“Perhaps, rather than banning or seeking to expose machine collaboration, it should be welcomed as ‘co-creativity.’”
Indeed, professional writers who have mastered one or more AI writing tools are generally seen as more valuable by employers.
Observes McKnight: “AI writers work lightning fast. They can write in multiple languages and can provide images, create metadata, headlines, landing pages, Instagram ads, content ideas, expansions of bullet points and search-engine optimized text — all in seconds.
“Students need to exploit these machine capabilities, as writers for digital platforms and audiences.
“Perhaps assessment should focus more on students’ capacities to use these tools skillfully instead of — or at least in addition to — pursuing ‘pure’ human writing.”
Of course, the question is, once AI writing tools are broadly accepted in the classroom, how — as a practical matter — can original writing still be taught?
*Competitor to Super-Computer Driven AI Writer: Now Free for All: AI researchers and others looking to play with an extremely powerful auto-writer can download one for free from EleutherAI.
The open source group of AI researchers say their latest competitor to GPT-3 — GPT-J — can be downloaded from GitHub.
While GPT-J is powered by six-billion parameters — much less that GPT-3 — the auto-writer nevertheless offers similar performance to GPT-3, according to EleutherAI developer Aran Komatsuzaki.
EleutherAI also offers a live demo version of GPT-J that users can visit to type-in any combination of words and receive near-instant auto-writing in return.
*RobotWritersAI.com Releases Four Reports: Four reports offering key insights into the impact and proliferation of AI-generated writing were released by RobotWritersAI.com in 2021:
~The Robots Cometh: How artificial intelligence is automating writing jobs: Amidst the hoopla of all things artificial intelligence, writers are increasingly wrestling with a hard truth: It appears robots are coming for their jobs.
~Company Reports That Write Themselves: Automated company reports appear destined to go mainstream with Microsoft’s recent entry into the space. Find out how AI can quickly auto-write and distribute easy-to-understand reports to all key decision makers at your business with this 2021 piece by Joe Dysart.
~Ultimate Guide: Artificial Intelligence Writing Software: Writers and others looking to harness AI-automated writing software may be surprised to learn it’s a buyer’s market. Check-out this special report to find AI writing software that’s specifically designed for your needs — as well as a look under-the-hood at how these wonder tools work.
~Artificial Intelligence Generated Writing: Top Trends for 2021: This report examines AI writing’s growing influence in all aspects for writing during the past year. Check back in early 2022 for next year’s forecast.
Share a Link: Please consider sharing a link to https://RobotWritersAI.com from your blog, social media post, publication or emails. More links leading to RobotWritersAI.com helps everyone interested in AI-generated writing.
–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.