The rise of robot authors: is the writing on the wall for human novelists?

Artificial intelligence can now write fiction and journalism. But does it measure up to George Orwell – and can it report on Brexit?Will androids write novels about electric sheep? The dream, or nightmare, of totally machine-generated prose seemed to have come one step closer with the recent announcement of an artificial intelligence that could produce, all by itself, plausible news stories or fiction. It was the brainchild of OpenAI – a nonprofit lab backed by Elon Musk and other tech entrepreneurs – which slyly alarmed the literati by announcing that the AI (called GPT2) was too dangerous for them to release into the wild, because it could be employed to create “deepfakes for text”. “Due to our concerns about malicious applications of the technology,” they said, “we are not releasing the trained model.” Are machine-learning entities going to be the new weapons of information terrorism, or will they just put humble midlist novelists out of business?Let’s first take a step back. AI has been the next big thing for so long that it’s easy to assume “artificial intelligence” now exists. It doesn’t, if by “intelligence” we mean what we sometimes encounter in our fellow humans. GPT2 is just using methods of statistical analysis, trained on huge amounts of human-written text – 40GB of web pages, in this case, that received recommendations from Reddit readers – to predict what ought to come next. This probabilistic approach is how Google Translate works, and also the method... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Spellbound: why ‘witch lit’ is the hottest new genre on our bookshelves

Vampires and ghosts have long haunted popular fiction, but now a string of new releases is focusing on marginalised women with hidden powersSomeone, or something, shadowy has put a strong spell on popular literature aimed at women, once cheekily labelled “chick lit”. This perky genre, packaged... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-08 12:00:47 UTC ]
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U.S. Book Show: A New Book Show Arrives

Welcome to the inaugural U.S. Book Show, a different kind of trade show. 'Publishers Weekly' editorial director Jim Milliot introduces the next big thing in publishing conferences. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Virtual Author Events Are the Next Big Thing

Booksellers are finding that the format is drawing big audiences—albeit with varying degrees of sales success. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Analytics Firm Parse.ly Expands to Track How Content Drives Conversions

The content analytics company Parse.ly has long captivated publishers with its intuitive dashboard to track how articles perform. In October, the 10-year-old company added functionality that tracks conversions. Parse.ly clients can now analyze the type of content people read before they... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2019-11-11 21:36:26 UTC ]
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6 lessons I learned by doing a paid newsletter for a year

A bit of advice before getting into online publishing’s next big thing. Last year, after nearly a decade of freelance tech journalism, I took a leap of faith and launched a paid subscription newsletter.Read Full Story Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-06-01 06:00:38 UTC ]
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Is the Next Big Idea Club the Next Big Thing?

Although serial entrepreneur Rufus Griscom has a background in books, he had no intention of getting into the book business when he launched a new venture, Heleo, in 2015. With the Next Big Idea Club, that's changed. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The rise of robot authors: is the writing on the wall for human novelists?

Artificial intelligence can now write fiction and journalism. But does it measure up to George Orwell – and can it report on Brexit?Will androids write novels about electric sheep? The dream, or nightmare, of totally machine-generated prose seemed to have come one step closer with the recent... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Get 'Machine Learning For Dummies' ($13 value) FREE for a limited time

Without machine learning, fraud detection, web search results, real-time ads on web pages, credit scoring, automation, and email spam filtering wouldn't be possible. Covering the entry-level topics needed to get you familiar with the basic concepts of machine learning, Machine Learning For... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2018-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Universal's Jody Gerson Pumps Up the Volume for Ads

Jody Gerson is having a good year.The CEO and chairman of Universal Music Publishing Group recently closed a deal for Bruce Springsteen's catalog andyears after discovering a 14-year-old Alicia Keysbelieves she has found the next big thing.You likely saw her handiwork at the Grammy's this year... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How Big Is Esports Really? Nielsen Attempts to Figure It Out

Professional video gaming is the next big thing. How big that is, though, is hard to say. Some estimates pegged it as a $493 million industry in 2016, others said it was nearly twice as big. As for the audience, some say it's 85% male, others say it's 56% male. No one really knows.Nielsen says... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New platform uses machine learning to find the next big thing in entertainment

Anyone involved in writing books or TV and film scripts knows that whilst the entertainment and publishing sectors are constantly on the look out for the next blockbuster, nobody is quite sure what one actually looks like. A new AI platform called AUTHORS is looking to use machine learning... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2017-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Digital 2016: Getting Seen on the Web

Publishers looking to make their content more visible on Web pages can try following a number of best practices that have risen up in recent years. These practices include the following: Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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5 Ways Mobile Is Changing News Consumption

BARCELONA, Spain—Media executives from television, online and magazine news organizations are optimistic that a mostly mobile audience will present new opportunities for reporting and engagement, even while revenue challenges remain. Speaking on a Mobile World Congress panel Thursday,... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2016-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This Startup Wants To End AdBlock's "Raping and Pillaging" Of Online Publishers

Websites are freaking out over billions in lost revenue and starting to fight back, but there are still legit reasons to block ads.This January marked the 10th anniversary of AdBlock Plus, a browser plug-in that banishes ads from web pages. It isn't the only ad blocker; but AdBlock Plus... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2016-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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AAA's Edenborough on fiction and subscription

Sam Edenborough, president of the Association of Authors’ Agents, talks about the next big thing in fiction and more. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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High hopes for 2016's début novels

Publishers are kicking off 2016 with débuts they hope to launch as the next big thing. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google AMP battles ad-blocking, Apple and Facebook by cutting load times

Search company unveils Accelerated Mobile Pages in bid to work with publishers, ad companies and rival platforms Google is attempting to counter the threat from ad-blocking and rivals Facebook and Apple by radically improving the loading speed of web pages on smartphones and tablets.Accelerated... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mobile Ad Blockers Have Already Become the App Store's Top Downloads

COLOGNE, Germany—Apple's support of ad-blocking in its iOS9 software has caused plenty of hand-wringing for U.S. publishers and ad-tech companies, and it appears they had good reason to worry. As of today, three of the Apple App Store's top paid apps in the U.S. are ad blockers, including the... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Study With Major Brands Compares Ad Recall for Mobile and Desktop Promos

If you want people to remember a mobile ad, you're going to have to pay for it, according to new research from digital ad firm Undertone. Last year, Undertone worked with Ipsos ASI to look at how takeover "high-impact" desktop ads affected brand recall. This year, the company looked at how... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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GroupM, Conde Nast 100% Viewability Deal Only Applies to Standard Ads

GroupM and Conde Nast caught a lot of people off-guard when the publisher agreed to only charge the media agency's clients for ads that were guaranteed to are entirely viewable by comsumers, a tougher stance than the industry was pushing. "I got emails from all of my peers in the industry... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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