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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Publishers including Maxim, Radar Online, Guitar World and USA Today Sports Media are experimenting with a pay wall that instead of charging readers requires them to watch an advertiser's video. The tactic, which uses a system ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Porter Anderson takes in recent discussions about metadata and book marketing, a live, crowdsourced writing experiment, book recommendation culture, and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hogarth announces The Hogarth Shakespeare: new prose versions of Shakespeare's plays, retold by bestselling novelists from around the world. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author of the new Asterix comic book says the Scottish landscape inspired the latest epic adventure Asterix and the Picts. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Ros Barber recalls the early hostile reaction she received for her award-winning debut novel in which playwright Christopher Marlowe is credited as the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shakespeare's plays will become contemporary novels, as the transatlantic Hogarth Press, an imprint of Random House, has announced it is commissioning prominent writers to adapt the Elizabethan plays.Shakespeare’s plays will become contemporary novels, as the transatlantic Hogarth Press, an... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Veronica Roth will release four short stories written from the point of view of 'Divergent' hero Four. The first will be released a month before the last book in the trilogy comes out. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Porter Anderson takes in the week's online debates on the belief that big publishers' power is diminished, ebook royalties, Amazon Worlds, pay for writers and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin has urged a US court to dismiss a case brought against it and its self-publishing arm... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Richard Matheson, who was 87, has died at home. His family announced his passing in a protected Facebook post; the news was shared by publisher Tor/Forge.Author Richard Matheson, who was 87, has died at home. His family announced his passing in a protected Facebook post; the news was... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Several publishers and authors have told The Bookseller that they are in the process of changing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sally Gardner, a dyslexic author once branded "unteachable" at school, wins the prestigious Carnegie Medal for her book Maggot Moon. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twenty-two published and unpublished authors last night (18th) shared the £40,000 prize... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vice Magazine's newest fashion spread depicted models dressed like Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and others in the act of committing suicide. The photos were taken down after a public outcry. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The relaunched Commonwealth Book Prize continues to be a key conduit of exchange between underrepresented countries and regions to the UK publishing community. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Craig Chappelow has written about how leaders can be more successful. But he'd crack One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest before the latest business book any day. Here's why he thinks you should, too. Read any good leadership books lately? Me either. It seems like popular books about leadership... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A marginal overall decline, rising ebook sales and online booksellers with double-digit... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers Grace McLeen, Anne Somerset and Alison Moore were among the 24 authors given Society of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the UK, authors are paid by the government when their physical books are borrowed (around 6p per loan), but digital titles are not yet a part of that agreement. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Few people understand the magic of libraries better than Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, but all is not well when it comes to digital lending. As the soon-to-be president of the Society of Authors, Pullman is leading the charge against publishing houses that may be shortchanging... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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