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 ]
News tagged with: #big thing #statistical analysis #web pages

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The rise of robot authors: is the writing on the wall for human novelists?'


Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors

Concerns raised about interference or censorship after documents showed writers were barred despite receiving enough nominationsA prestigious literary award for science fiction, which was hosted in China for the first time, has come under fire for excluding several authors from the 2023 awards,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-24 15:53:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #concerns raised #raising concerns #science fiction #times bestseller #literary award


Terry Bisson, Award-Winning Sci-Fi Author, Dies at 81

The award-winning science fiction author, whose short story “Bears Discover Fire” swept the genre's major awards in 1990, died on January 10 following a recent cancer diagnosis. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #major awards #science fiction


England: A Fly on the Wall on the Publishers Association’s Climate Pledge

Independent press Fly on the Wall signs the UK Publishers Association's 'Publishing Declares' effort to address the climate crises. The post England: A Fly on the Wall on the Publishers Association’s Climate Pledge appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-01-16 20:39:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post england #publishers association #publishers association's


Meet the 10 best new novelists for 2024

Our annual pick of the most exciting debut fiction has previously tipped Sally Rooney and Louise Kennedy, Tom Crewe and Douglas Stuart. Here the class of 2024 tell us their storiesEach year since 2014, the Observer New Review’s writers and editors have read scores of forthcoming debut novels... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-14 07:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short stories #ll love #previous years #gail honeyman #completely fine #orwell prize #jane austen #novelists


Keanu and co: how celebrities became bestselling novelists

From Richard Osman and Millie Bobby Brown to the upcoming book by Keanu Reeves, celebrity novels are everywhere. What’s behind the boom? And how do non-famous writers feel about it?I understood that if I was going to do it, I would have to put 100% of myself into it,” says Richard Osman about... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-13 09:00:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #geri halliwell-horner #paul mccartney #jamie oliver #adult fiction #celebrity author #tom hanks #including books #dolly parton #novelists #nielsen bookscan #upcoming book


Lisa Marie Presley started writing a book before she died. Riley Keough completed it

Lisa Marie Presley's posthumous memoir will hit shelves later this year, with the help of her daughter Riley Keough, who picked up the pieces. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 20:25:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #posthumous memoir #hit shelves #memoir


Writing as an Act of Grieving

In her essay for PW, author E.L. Shen reflects on the experience of losing her father as a teenager and the catharsis of writing about grief in her forthcoming book for middle graders, 'Maybe It's a Sign.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #middle graders


Encyclopedia Britannica once published a catalogue of humanity’s ‘102 Great Ideas’ – and it created more questions than answers

Mid-century encyclopaedias claimed the power to decide what counted as knowledge and what didn’t – much as online publishing platforms and social media companies do today. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2024-01-09 17:02:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #encyclopedia britannica #online publishing


Authors Guild Surveys Literary Translators on Labor Conditions

The 2022 Survey of Literary Translators' Working Conditions collected data on income, royalties, copyright, and more from the responses of nearly 300 literary translators in the United States. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary translators


What Booksellers Can Teach Us About Reading, Writing and Publishing

My longtime girlfriend is a longtime bookseller. Her relationship with bookselling predates ours three times over. It is a surprisingly taxing career path—one that asks of the body, and of the mind. There are the bad days, where she brings home the classic bookseller gripes: failed hand-sells,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-05 09:56:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #longtime bookseller #bad days #bookseller


Trial of Salman Rushdie’s attacker postponed because of author’s memoir

Rushdie’s book about the incident will be published in April, but the delay ‘will not change the ultimate outcome’ of the trial says district attorneyThe trial of the man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie has been postponed because of the publication of the author’s memoir about the attack.A... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-04 13:18:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #salman rushdie #man accused #york state #memoir


‘Where does the bot end and human begin?’: what the legendary @Horse_ebooks can teach us about AI

By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, the account functioned like today’s chatbots. The Guardian spoke to Jacob Bakkila, the human behind the accountMore than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner or pass the bar... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-03 15:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ebooks


‘Historical reparation’: new bookshops in Europe give voice to female authors

Greta Livraria in Lisbon and Rare Birds in Edinburgh are among the new stores dedicated to women’s writingWith its neatly arranged tables and shelves laden with books written by women, Greta Livraria’s small space masks its big ambitions. Since opening earlier this year, the bookstore in Lisbon... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-12-28 05:00:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #female authors #big ambitions #bookstore #books written


Pietsch Touts New Marketing Efforts in Letter to Authors

In his last annual letter to authors as Hachettte Book Group CEO, Michael Pietsch hit on a number of topics, including the publisher’s steps to improve its marketing efforts. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #annual letter #marketing efforts #book group


Five years and 2m copies later, self-published author lands UK book deal

Norfolk-based crime writer JM Dalgliesh topped the Amazon and Kindle bestsellers before being signed by a traditional publisher In 2018, JM Dalgliesh was a stay-at-home father when he sent his first crime novel to six literary agents, only to receive polite rejection letters – or no response at... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-12-17 09:00:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #2m copies #literary agents #traditional publisher #kindle #uk book #self-published author


Lennar, Scholastic fall; Costco, Steel Dynamics rise, 12/15/2023

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes on Friday: Lennar, Scholastic fall; Costco, Steel Dynamics Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2023-12-15 21:17:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #scholastic fall #traded heavily #substantial price #scholastic


De Los | Reads: 9 books to read during the holidays by Latinx authors

If you want inspiration for the new year, the nonfiction section has a self-care title that promises a meditative reading and a graphic novel about the Latinx leaders who changed the history of the U.S. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-12-13 18:42:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #latinx authors #graphic novel


Novelist's book is canceled after she acknowledges 'review bombs' of other writers

A debut author who used fake accounts to “review bomb” other writers on the influential online platform Goodreads has been dropped by her agent and had her book deal cancelled Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2023-12-13 02:46:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #fake accounts #book deal #debut author


Cait Corrain apologizes, checks into rehab after Goodreads 'review bombing' rival authors

First-time author Cait Corrain has apologized on X and announced she is going to rehab after losing her book deal and agent for 'review bombing' on Goodreads. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-12-12 22:43:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book deal