In this 52-minute podcast, author Joanna Penn offers her insights on how AI is remaking independent publishing.
Key issues Penn illuminates include AI and creativity, AI in audiobook narration and AI’s impact on copyrights.
“There are many, many questions that we have to think about,” Penn says. “But why it is so important for us to talk about this is because things are already happening. “
Bonus: Penn includes a full, written transcript of the podcast at the same link.
In other AI-generated writing news:
*Getting Robot Journalism Right: A robot writing machine working with a professionally maintained database yields trustworthy journalism, according to Soren Karlsson, CEO, United Robots.
Conversely, info ‘scraped’ from the Internet – with no assurance that the data retrieved is accurate – is at best unreliable, he says.
“Having worked in this field for several years now, I’ve heard skeptics question how it’s possible to build algorithms that create consistently reliable and correct articles,” Karlsson adds.
“This concern is valid when the underlying data is collected by scraping the Internet. But when you build your automated content on structured data sets, the risk of error is minimal.”
*PR Group Invites Responses on AI Survey: Researchers are looking for public relations pros to participate in a survey detailing how they use AI tools.
“Until very recently, the conversation around AI and PR ranged from denial to techno-panic,” observes Steve Waddington, a visiting professor at Newcastle University.
Offering PR pros an update on how AI tools are being used in the industry should enable them to be proactive – rather than reactive – when it comes to AI, according to Waddington.
Waddington is helping coordinate the survey, underwritten by The Charted Institute of Public Relations.
Survey responses are being accepted through Sept. 11.
To participate, check out this link.
*AI-Generated Writing Should be Rejected Outright, Tech Journalist Says: Amidst the unbridled fascination with the robot writing machine, count author Mike Elgan as adamantly opposed.
“As we embark on this partnership with artificial intelligence, it’s important that we safeguard human intelligence,” Elgan observes. “And the biggest threat to human intelligence is software that writes.”
“Writing involves revision, which clarifies thinking,” Elgan adds. “We think. We write what we think. Then by reading what we write, we realize the errors in our thinking — or at least in the way we have expressed our thinking.
“We rewrite until our thoughts are clearly and accurately and fully expressed.”
No matter your position, there’s no denying Elgan’s article is a provocative read.
*AI Editing Comes to Gmail: Google has added free AI editing for Gmail users. When you’re using Gmail, a squiggly blue line now appears every time you make a mistake in grammar.
Simply click on your errant phrasing and you’ll be presented with suggested grammatical corrections.
Google trained the AI grammar tool with the help of computational and analytical linguists. The team reviewed thousands of grammar samples over several months, according to author Marie C. Baca.
“Each sample was reviewed by three linguists,” she adds. And “the samples were then fed into statistical learning algorithms — along with other ‘correct’ text — to build a spelling and grammar correction model.”
*The Future of AI-Generated Academic Writing: Author Lettie Conrad offers an in-depth interview with Springer Nature – the company behind the first book generated by a robot writing machine — detailing the way ahead for academic AI writing.
Also included in the interview is the researcher who led the AI-coding behind the book: Christian Chiarcos, an assistant professor of applied computation linguistics at Goethe University.
Springer Nature published the AI-generated book in April.
*Why Data, Auto-Transformed Into Stories, Makes So Much Sense: Stuart Frankel, CEO, Narrative Science – a maker of artificial intelligence writing tools – offers his perspective on why transforming data into easily readable prose is the way to go for business analysis.
“The reality is that most people don’t like data,” Frankel says. Instead, the perspective of people working with data is, “‘Just give me the story: Give me what an analyst would give me if she had 30 minutes to look at a bunch of data and give me only the information I need,'” he says.
“Stories (generated by AI) are a great way to do that,” Frankle adds. “Stories are really memorable. And they can often be really personal. So they’re very valuable tools for communicating information.”
*October Conference: Journalism in the Age of AI: Get up-to-speed on how top players in Asian news media are deploying AI at the Digital Journalism World Summit 2019. It’s slated for Oct. 7-8, in Singapore.
Key AI trends the summit will examine include:
*How AI is enhancing journalism
*AI strategies and case studies
*AI news projects around the world
*The upgraded digital newsroom
*Working with robots and algorithms
*How AI is Tinkering With the Workings of Journalism: Ron Schmelzer, a principal analyst at Cognilytica, offers his perspective on how AI is automating and changing journalism.
*Textmetric’s Take on AI-Augmented Writing: The maker of an AI editing tool offers its perspective on the benefits of robot augmented writing.
“You don’t have to be afraid the software will do your writing,” observes Kyrill Poelmans, co-founder, Textmetrics. “It is not designed to replace humans.”
Instead, “Augmented software collaborates with you to improve your writing,” he observes. “It gives you positive feedback while writing — and makes your life easier.”
*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.