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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Jessye Norman, author of "Stand Up Straight and Sing!" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 9780544003408) will appear on Katie Couric's "Katie" on Wednesday, May 7. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Virgin Soldier author Leslie Thomas has died aged 83. Thomas, who was brought up in a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lisa Lillien, author of "The Hungry Girl Diet: Big Portions. Big Results. Drop 10 Pounds in 4 Weeks" (St. Martin's Griffin, 9780312676797), will appear on NBC’s "Today Show" on Wednesday, May 7. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnard College named Carmen Ren as the first ever recipient of its Axinn Foundation/Anna Quindlen Award for Creative Writing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The parties have submitted a proposed pretrial schedule that would likely not have fraud claims against the self-publishing service provider ready for trial until after 2015. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anne Geddes, author of "Anne Geddes Little Blessings" (Sourcebooks, 9781402298189), will appear on "CBS This Morning" on Monday, May 5. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author and part-time judge Constance Briscoe, who earlier today (2nd May) was jailed for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jennifer Esposito, author of "Jennifer’s Way: My Journey with Celiac Disease—What Doctors Don’t Tell You and How You Can Learn to Live Again" (Da Capo Lifelong, 9780738217109) will appear on Katie Couric’s "Katie" on Thursday, May 1. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Max Brooks, author of "The Harlem Hellfighters" (Broadway Books, 9780307464972), will appear on "Conan" on TBS on Tuesday, April 29. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"Be generous to your characters: kill them, save them, break their hearts and then heal them." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Annabelle Gurwitch, author of "I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50" (Blue Rider, 9780399166181), will appear on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday, April 25. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jason Padgett, author of "Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Medical Marvel" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 9780544045606) will appear on "CBS This Morning" on Thursday, April 24. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite complaints from former MacAdam Cage authors about ebook royalties and statements, Mark Pearce, publisher of MP Publishing, the ebook distributor that controls their ebook rights, claims all royalties have been paid and all statements are up to date. Pearce is urging former MacAdam Cage... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Guardian Faber has acquired a new book by actor and comedian David Mitchell. Commissioning... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Going to the library frequently is the same as getting a pay rise of £1,359 a year,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Douglas Whynott, author of "The Sugar Season: A Year in the Life of Maple Syrup—and One Family’s Quest for the Sweetest Harvest" (Da Capo, 9780306822049) will appear on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday, April 22. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Savannah Book Festival announced plans to offer year-round author events, starting with Tami Hoag set to headline the Spring 2014 event. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The biennial Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., featured high-profile authors and drew 2,000 attendees eager to explore the connections between faith and creative expression. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Late Friday afternoon, the Authors Guild filed its appeal in its copyright infringement lawsuit against Google. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Robert Dawson, author of "The Public Library: A Photographic Essay" (Princeton Architectural Press, 9781616892173), will appear on "Weekend Edition Saturday" on Saturday, April 12. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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