CIA Invests In Narrative Science; Robot Journalism Becomes Media's Worst Fear
Having robots write automated prose for your sports column, the thought is in itself unsettling and intriguing. But it is now a reality that Narrative Science, a start-up based in Chicago that came out of Northwestern University, where computer science and journalism students created software to write automated recaps of baseball games, has achieved just that. Journalists across the world have all reasons to feel disturbed, the company has developed artificial intelligence technology that converts structured data-sets into news items. Narrative Science has already been able to automate sports and finance content and now with the news that the venture firm - In-Q-Tel, who invests on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has invested an undisclosed amount in Narrative Science. The company has officially announced a "strategic partnership and technology development agreement" with CIA. And where does that leave us? Pondering about a world where robot journalism will be at large.
The capabilities of this technology are of most use to those who deal regularly and largely on spreadsheets and charts and in-general big chunks of data. Now, people could pay to convert all that confusing information into a couple of readable paragraphs that hit the key points. Without the need of human intervention, by coupling data analytics and its editorial expertise with AI, transforming complex data sets into plain English narrative content has become an easy-peasy task for this robot journalist.
Narrative Science #-Link-Snipped-# it will build a version of Quill, its flagship product, for In-Q-Tel’s government customers, which includes the Department of Homeland Security. And In-Q-Tel has had its hands in virtually every enterprise success story and has invested in a lot of the technology we use in our daily lives. Thus, perpetuating the worst fear of journalists and media - 'robot journalism' becoming a thing of our present. The question remains that - Will AI and robotics have the human touch similar to the one we get while reading from our favorite authors and editors? Only time will tell.
Via: #-Link-Snipped-#
The capabilities of this technology are of most use to those who deal regularly and largely on spreadsheets and charts and in-general big chunks of data. Now, people could pay to convert all that confusing information into a couple of readable paragraphs that hit the key points. Without the need of human intervention, by coupling data analytics and its editorial expertise with AI, transforming complex data sets into plain English narrative content has become an easy-peasy task for this robot journalist.
Narrative Science #-Link-Snipped-# it will build a version of Quill, its flagship product, for In-Q-Tel’s government customers, which includes the Department of Homeland Security. And In-Q-Tel has had its hands in virtually every enterprise success story and has invested in a lot of the technology we use in our daily lives. Thus, perpetuating the worst fear of journalists and media - 'robot journalism' becoming a thing of our present. The question remains that - Will AI and robotics have the human touch similar to the one we get while reading from our favorite authors and editors? Only time will tell.
Via: #-Link-Snipped-#
Replies
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loveboxThe intriguing question is, why would the CIA be interested in such a technology?😕 Perhaps, the CIA sees this software as a tool that can ease out their task by scanning through the humongous volume of snooping data they collects day-in-and-day-out from across the world and render it comprehensible.😏 -
Ankita KatdareLet us, for a minute, think about it this way. Whatever popular news sources that are out there reveal-unleash-launch-unleash the news that has been carefully crafted to suit the needs of people who 'own' things. So, the general public who read and relish get to know only the version of the story that they want you to know. If robot-journalism starts thriving, we won't even have our favorite movie-reviews and editorial columns on politics and sports - the way we like it. 👀 This news is both - troubling as well as unsettling.
Already the information we read is processed and presented, now do we need a mechanized non-sentimental aspect to our daily dose of data? -
loveboxJust add to that the possibility of 3D animated virtual news presenters and smart text-speech conversion programs, then we will not even need human intervention in televised news.
And the 'media moguls' will have more freedom to manipulate the public opinion the way they want. Quite worrying.
You are reading an archived discussion.
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