Ready to hire computers to write your marketing pieces and press releases?
Today Rocketboom mentions that Thomson (Peterson’s former parent) is using computers to write news stories. Reportedly they’ve been at it since March. I wonder if any of the readers noticed.
Reading the article, this looks like less a case of a computer actually writing and more a case of a computer filling a template with numbers. Applied to higher ed, I suppose this sort of thing is possible with things like Admission stats (SATs and such), but we already employ templates for this sort of thing anyway.
When computers actually start writing… well, I can just imagine what kind of hell that spammers could create of the web.
Comment by Morgan — August 24, 2006 @ 1:55 pm
Can you get one?
Maybe, you could have it write your posts when you’re too busy to blog
Comment by Karine — August 24, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
“This means we can free up reporters so they have more time to think.” The sarcastic responses to that quote write themselves, don’t they? Reality always trumps fiction. This is a good catch - thanks!
Comment by Scott Crow — August 25, 2006 @ 4:08 pm