A new report finds that many publishers impressed by artificial intelligence generated writing and similar technologies are doing double-takes on its price tag.

Essentially, 47% of key players in publishing surveyed say they like what they see, but they’re uncertain that AI can deliver a solid return on investment.

The irony, according to the researchers: Other evidence gleaned from the same survey shows even minimal investment in AI brings back significant sales increases for publishers.

That additional investment coin could involve little more than hiring AI-savvy employees, or training existing employees in AI.

“Those who have invested in artificial intelligence are happy with their experience and will continue to invest on all levels,” the researchers observe.

The study, “The Future Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Publishing Industry” — released Gould Finch and Frankfurter Buchmesse — is available for free download.

Approximately 300 pros from all facets of publishing were surveyed for the report.

In other AI-generated writing news:

*Swedish News Publisher Spikes Reader Interest Using AI:
Swedish publisher Mittmedia says it was able to increase click rates on news stories 50% using AI.

Their play: Using AI software to select stories and personalize the front page of a newspaper, based on a reader’s news preference.

The result: one reader would see one version of a newspaper front page, while another reader might see a completely different front page, featuring different stories.

“I think that we will see total personalization and automation of publishing within the near future,” says Robin Govik, CDO, Mittmedia.

Mittmedia’s success story is part of a comprehensive November 2019 report detailing how AI-generated writing and similar tools are remaking journalism.

The study was released by the European Broadcasting Union.

*Study: Public Relations Industry ‘Sleepwalking’ into AI Adoption: Preliminary analysis from a forthcoming report on AI in public relations finds the PR industry has been slow to embrace the new tech.

Specifically, the study – due out January 2020 — suggests “public relations is significantly behind the curve and sleepwalking into AI,” according to Anne Gregory.

She’s a professor of corporate communications at University of Huddersfield.

“Other professions have already done major work on the shape of their future workforce — reviewing education and training, looking at their future role in organizations and society and at the ethics of AI,” Gregory observes.

“We need to get cracking, and get on with some serious work in all these areas.”

*Release of Fake Comment Generator Research Draws Fire: News of prototype AI software designed to add fake comments beneath news stories on the Web has drawn the ire of numerous journalists and scientists.

Among those troubled by the AI tool: Alvin Grissom II, a computer scientist at Ursinus College.

“I think there’s qualitative difference between research on fundamental problems that have the potential for misuse and applications which are specifically suited to — if not designed for — misuse,” Grissom observes.

The research triggering the controversy was featured at the 2019 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Langauge.

Researchers who authored the report are from Microsoft and Beihang University.

*Without AI, Newsrooms Risk Becoming Irrelevant: Media outlets need to get onboard with AI-generated writing and similar tools within the next five years – or risk being dusted, according to an AI researcher.

“You’ve got two years to start running and at least working out your route,” says Charlie Beckett.

He’s director of the Media Policy Project, sponsored by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“If you’re not active within five years, you’re going to lose the window of opportunity,” Beckett adds. “If you miss that, you’ll be too late.”

*Newsmedia Needs to Assess Reader Reaction to AI-Generated Journalism, Researcher Says: Newsrooms need a better take on how readers are reacting to AI-generated writing and similar tools, according to Andrea L. Guzman.

She’s an assistant professor of journalism at Northern Illinois University.

“What is needed moving forward is a more thorough study of the various ways in which the audience may conceptualize and make sense of technologies stepping into a human role in the journalism process,” Guzman observes.

Specifically, news outlets need to study audience response to how AI is used to prioritize news — as well as how AI tools are auto-generating writing — according to Guzman.

Ditto, Guzman adds, for news media’s use of chatbots.

“These efforts must go beyond people’s assessments of the quality of the product created during the automation process and directly examine how people understand technology within this particular communicative role, by wrestling with the nature of machines, of humans, and of journalism, even as they all continue to evolve,” Guzman observes.

*Shakespeare Probably Had Help Writing Some Plays, According to AI: AI Czech researcher Petr Plechac has concluded some of Shakespeare’s plays were created with a collaborator.

One example of the writing on the wall, so to speak: Plechac’s AI analysis of Shakespeare’s play, “Henry VIII. ”

The AI software detected idiosyncratic word choices and rhythms woven into some of the play’s passages, which much more closely mirror the style of Shakespeare’s contemporary, John Fletcher.

*Tweaked AI Tool Generates Prototype Creative Writing: Publishers Weekly’s Jason Boog says he has jerry-rigged GPT-2 — a fake news generator — to create a long-form creative writing tool.

No Hemingway, the turbo-charged GPT-2 nevertheless produced some interesting creative writing – with a little help from a human.

“I could have generated 50,000 words in less than an hour with my AI writing partner,” Boog observes. “But I chose to spend 18 days reading hundreds of pages and collecting the most compelling texts into a single document.

“I’ll spend the rest of the year finding ways to incorporate Mr. Output’s (Boog’s nickname for his souped-up GPT-2 software) strange and wonderful AI work into my own writing.”

*Google Adds AI Editor to Google Docs: The direct competitor to Microsoft Word now has an AI grammar checker.

“Unlike other grammar tools, Google’s version utilizes a neural network approach to detect potential grammar issues in your text,” observes Frederic Lardinois, a writer for Tech Crunch.

The method is quite similar to techniques underpinning AI-assisted translation, he says.

*Using AI, Crafts Retailer Boosts Marketing Email Opens 10%: U.S. crafts supplier Joann says its use of AI software for writing has boosted opens of is marketing emails by 10%.

Joann says it pulled-off the increase by tapping AI toolmaker Phrasee to come-up with various AI-generated subject heads for its marketing emails.

Phrasee then ran those machine-generated subject heads through rigorous testing to surface la crème de la crème.

The result: Joann used the top-performing email subject heads in its marketing emails, boosting opens of those emails by 10%.

Encouraged by the results, the crafts retail giant is looking to leverage AI-generated writing throughout all of its text marketing.

“We want to be able to speak to the customer in the way they want to be spoken to so that it can be the most engaging, most enjoyable, most delightful exchange and interaction,” says Gideon Toman, Joan’s digital marketing manager.

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*Also on RobotWritersAI.com — Evergreen Article:

*AI-Created Newsletters: On The Cheap

–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.