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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The #5 book in Italy in May, Gianluigi Nuzzi’s His Holiness. The Secret Documents of Benedict XVI, has caused international news since its publication. Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested late last month on suspicion of releasing dozens of embarrassing letters to Nuzzi... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The top 10 publishers in the world had their lowest combined market share last year in the Livres... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Los Angeles man who wrote a book about his alleged gay encounters with John Travolta filed a libel lawsuit on Thursday against the actor and his attorney. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins imprint The Friday Project is to publish a new novel by W P Kinsella, author of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford talks about his new novel "Canada," his memories of the late Raymond Carver, and how art makes life. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of Israeli authors launch a battle to stop the country's leading bookstores from slashing prices, claiming it reduces their royalties. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google and French publishers and authors have officially ended six years of legal wrangles with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google has struck a deal with two French organizations representing authors and book publishers, ending years of litigation. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Friends of the Kensal Rise Library has written to All Souls College to ask it to consider... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers from Sri Lanka and New Zealand have won this year's Commonwealth Writers Awards for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google Inc.'s effort to digitize the world's books inched forward Monday, as the search giant said it had struck deals with French authors and publishers that end six years of litigation and open the way to sell out-of-print French books online. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Historical novelist Barry Unsworth, who won the Booker Prize in 1992 for his novel about the 18th... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors have reacted angrily to news of a proposed qualification for Creative Practitioners... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The May sunshine led to a 3.4% total sales increase last month, according to the British Retail... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild is encouraging its 8,500 members to submit comments against the proposed settlement between the Department of Justice and three large publishers. The settlement, the guild argues, will only benefit Amazon. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Chicago Tribune is mulling a plan to charge online readers premiums for different kinds of content, a structure similar to the fee it charges for the print literary magazine it introduced this year. The city's largest newspaper is charting ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jean Craighead George was a leading writer of novels about nature for young readers. One of her best-known works was the Newbery Medal-winning 'Julie of the Wolves.' After children's author Jean Craighead George revealed that she wanted to write a book about a girl who talks with wolves,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House chief executive Gail Rebuck and authors including Jacqueline Wilson, A S Byatt and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Self-published writers who have an agent, or who use the DIY route to get a traditional deal... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Granta Magazine has opened submissions for the fourth edition of the Best of Young British... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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