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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Lisa Bloom, author of "Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story of the Trayvon Martin Injustice and Why We Continue to Repeat It" (Counterpoint, 9781619023277), will appear on the "Today Show" and the "Leonard Lopate Show" on Wednesday, February 26. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mayim Bialik, author of "Mayim’s Vegan Table" (Da Capo Lifelong, 9780738217048) will appear on the "Wendy Williams Show" on Tuesday, February 25. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Love him or hate him, you can't fault James Patterson for his generosity, as he's giving some $1 million of his money back to independent bookstores. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weir's debut novel is experiencing good sales and is receiving praise for the scientific detail involved in his tale of an astronaut stranded on Mars. The author says he was inspired by the movie 'Apollo 13,' where it's 'man versus nature... it's all of us against the physical world.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BookExpo America is expanding its offering for indie authors, introducing Author Hub. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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General Stanley McChrystal, author of "My Share of the Task: A Memoir" (Portfolio Trade, 9781591846826), will appear on the "Colbert Report" on Thursday, February 20. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With a debate brewing about how much indie authors can, and do, earn, PW asked Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, to weigh in. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Su Meck, author of "I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia" (Simon & Schuster, 9781451685817), will appear on the "Diane Rehm Show" on Wednesday, February 19. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer to adapt her new novel, called Tennison, for TV in 2016, the 25th anniversary of the hit ITV drama starring Helen MirrenLynda La Plante is writing a prequel to Prime Suspect which she will adapt for TV in 2016, the 25th anniversary of the hit ITV drama.The prequel will be called Tennison,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chatto & Windus is to publish a memoir about daughterhood by social historian Juliet Nicolson... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Andy Weir, author of "The Martian" (Crown, 9780804139021), will appear on NPR's "Science Friday" on Friday, February 14. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Business psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic reveals the reasons why the online publisher is so successfulWhen it comes to online content and storytelling, there are few sites as savvy as BuzzFeed, a platform that combines artificial and human intelligence to detect, produce and increase viral... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Snow Queen' inspired not only Disney's hit musical 'Frozen' but also author Karen Foxlee, who based her critically acclaimed novel 'Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy' on the wintry tale. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Snow Queen' inspired not only Disney's hit musical 'Frozen' but also author Karen Foxlee, who based her critically acclaimed novel 'Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy' on the wintry tale. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The organisers of the UK’s first YA literature convention has announced a range of authors... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Duchess of Cambridge has written the foreword for a book which reveals “what life as an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Daily Mail publisher reports that website's ad revenues increased by 48% to £14m in the final three months of 2013Mail Online's ad revenues increased by almost 50% to £14m in the final three months of last year, more than offsetting a fall in print advertising to keep the Daily Mail titles in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The fifth annual Festival Neue Literatur begins in NYC on February 28 with a series of readings and discussions with German-language authors. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling Simon & Schuster authors Victoria Christopher Murray and ReShonda Tate Billingsley are now teaming up on the business side: the two writers are launching Brown Girls Publishing, a new digital publishing venture that debuts today. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While authors have appeared in person, via Skype or via telephone at book clubs before, Book the Writer has the clubs pay for the author's appearance. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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