Could a Computer Write This Story? 101
An anonymous reader tips an article at CNN about the development of technology that automates the process of writing news articles. It started with simple sports reporting, but now at least one company is setting its sights on more complicated articles. Quoting:
"Narrative Science then began branching out into finance and other topics that are driven heavily by data. Soon, Hammond says, large companies came looking for help sorting huge amounts of data themselves. 'I think the place where this technology is absolutely essential is the area that's loosely referred to as big data,' Hammond said. 'So almost every company in the world has decided at one point that in order to do a really good job, they need to meter and monitor everything.' ... Meanwhile, Hammond says Narrative Science is looking to eventually expand into long form news stories. That's an idea that's unsettling to some journalism experts."
A better question (Score:3, Funny)
Could a Computer Write Better Stories on Slashdot?
YES.
How news is written (Score:5, Funny)
"${subject} ${verb} ${object}," said a source inside the ${CurrentPresident} ${administration} who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Easy! (Score:5, Funny)
void main (void) {
printf("First Post!\n");
}
Re:A better question (Score:2, Funny)
In fact, I stop reading slashdot summaries as soon as I decided whether I want to read the article or not. Otherwise I keep reading the same material over and over again, which is a waste of my time. Better slashdot summaries would be welcome, yes. The current crop waste time and aren't very strong indicators, as in there's a fairly high "oh the article was crap after all" percentage.
Newspeak makes it easier for computers to write... (Score:4, Funny)