A new study from Frontier Economics finds that the use of AI tools will continue to proliferate throughout the UK publishing industry.
Observes Catherine Etienne, a senior associate at Frontier Economics: “We can expect to see a wide variety of AI technologies being applied by UK publishers at every stage in the value chain within the next two years.”
Specific apps increasing in popularity according to Etienne include:
*AI tools for authors to identify, compile and summarize research materials
*AI writing assistants and AI plagiarism checkers
*AI tools designed to improve marketing strategies and overall service
In other AI-generated writing news:
*Microsoft Rolls-Out AI-Driven Transcription in Word: Millions of Microsoft 365 users now have access to AI-generated transcription in Word, with a tool dubbed ‘Word for the Web.’
The app records your conversations, detects different speakers and serves-up a transcription of the completed talk.
Observes Dan Parish, a group manager at Microsoft: “Your transcript will appear alongside the Word document, along with the recording.”
That enables you to leverage your transcript to create great content in the way that is best for you, according to Parish.
Adds Parish: “Say you want to pull the perfect quote from an interview to support the main point of your story —
“Just click the plus icon on any line of the transcript and voila, the exact quote is inserted.”
Word for the Web also converts the transcript to a Word document for easy handling and emailing.
Currently, Microsoft has a five-hour-per-month limit per user on Word for the Web.
*Using AI to Promote Quality Journalism: International broadcaster Deutsche Welle offers a deep dive into AI and quality journalism in this 92-minute YouTube Video.
Topics discussed include:
*AI Tools that Summarize Multiple Sources of Info
*Personalizing News with AI
*Using AI for Investigative Journalism
*How AI is Transforming the Role of the Journalist
*GPT-3 and Kids’ Books: Looks Like a Go: Marketer Chris Frantz says he was able to auto-generate a children’s book using super auto-text generator GPT-3.
Observes Frantz: “I have babies on the brain and recently celebrated the birth of our first child.
“So of course, I had to break off a few hours of paternity leave to see if we could write a children’s book.”
The result: “It did a great job,” according to Frantz.
In truth, the ‘book’ is simply a short poem — generously padded with illustrations.
Frantz describes how he cajoled GPT-3 to write the story book in this article.
Adds Frantz: “We’re at a watershed moment with AI.
“It’s accessible and the results are finally passable.
“This means that we now have the ability to generate creativity at scale — which is something that has never before been possible.”
For an in-depth look at GPT-3, check out: “GPT-3 and AI Writing: Stunning, if Imperfect,”by Joe Dysart.
*Disinformation-As-A-Service: GPT-3’s Unintended Consequence?: Auto-writing wonder tool GPT-3 could signal the emergence of a new cottage industry: ‘disinformation-as-a-service,’ according to an article in Slate.
One scenario, according to author Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci: Using AI-generated writing to flood the Web with propaganda and overwhelm opposing political and other perspectives.
“Flooding involves producing a significant amount of content to distract, confuse, and discredit.
“Take the creation and dissemination of ‘fake news’ in the United States: People both abroad and at home churn-out stories that combine fact and fiction, undermining mainstream news organizations while distracting and confusing the public.
“By automating much of the writing process, sophisticated language models such as GPT-3 could significantly increase the effectiveness of flooding operations.”
*Quest Offers Free Test Drive of AI Tool for Science Reporting: Science communications group Quest is seeking journalists to test-drive their new tool, which uses AI to help journalists write more informed science stories.
Dubbed JECT.AI, the app:
*Auto-discovers data from diverse sources, which journalists can use in a science-based story they’re researching
*Auto-suggests an angle for a science story, based on a wide variety of ‘audience personas’ it has developed
*Auto-suggests context and background for a science story
*Auto-suggests metaphors that journalists can use to illuminate scientific concepts
Squired by a team of experts, scholars and media pros, Quest’s goal with JECT.AI is to engender quality coverage of science stories focused on vaccines, global warming, and artificial intelligence.
*AI Journalism: A View from the Street: Four players in AI journalism will be sharing their insights on AI-generated news in an online session Oct. 14 at ONA20 Everywhere.
ONA20 Everywhere is an online gathering of digital journalists for learning, networking and inspiration sponsored by the Online News Association.
Featured on the panel are:
*Ashley Alvarado
director, community engagement
Southern California Public Radio
*John Keefe
graphics/multimedia editor
The New York Times
*Sonali Verma
senior product manager, analytics
The Globe and Mail
*Mike Lupo
senior director/emerging product and experimentation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Moderating the panel will be Paul Cheung, director of journalism and technology innovation, Knight Foundation.
Other AI-related sessions slated for ONA2020 Everywhere include:
~13th Annual Tech Trends in Journalism, Oct. 14
~How Automated Tweets Can Warn About Fires in the Amazon, Oct. 14
~Scaling Reader Engagement with Machine Learning, Oct. 15
*AI and Journalism: A Snaphshot in Time: The Goethe-Institut offers a snapshot on the current state of AI-generated news in this piece.
Among author Barbara Gruber’s interesting observations: “In a newsroom, machines are tireless colleagues who can sift automatically through troves of data, analyzing almost anything from SEO tags to official data, user-generated-content or location-matching social media posts.”
Adds Lisa Gibbs, AI news lead at the Associated Press: “Like any technology, AI can be used for good and for bad purposes.
“Each news organization must have an ethical framework for how to use it, and understand its implications.”
*AI as Style Guide: Writers once governed by the AP Style Guide or UPI Style Guide are now turning to AI-driven guides to standardize their writing, according to Jennifer Schmich.
She’s senior manager, content systems, Intuit.
Observes Schmich: “The next generation style guide is here now.
“Grammarly and Writer, formerly Qordoba (two AI-driven writing assistants that auto-analyze writing and offer corrections and suggestions for improvement), have the best of everything that came before in one place — plus AI.
“AI improves the quality of automated language checks in the context of what the content means.
“The suggestions are delivered out to teams as they write, where teams write.”
*AI-Writing Assistant Grammarly Releases an Upgrade: Grammarly – the computerized equivalent of having your 12th grade English teacher look over your shoulder to ensure your writing is clear, colorful, concise – and correct – has a new upgrade.
Observes Frederic Lardinois, a writer for Tech Crunch: “The service can now help you restructure sentences for clarity, help you improve your formatting to make your sentences more readable — mostly through suggesting bulleted lists — and suggest changes to your tone.”
Specific help on a convoluted sentence comes in the form of a suggested, automated rewrite of the sentence from Grammarly, according to Lardinois.
As for Grammarly’s rework on writing tone: “The system will not just point out what a document sounds like, but provide suggestions for improving it,” according to Lardinois.
*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.