The rise of robot writers is here. Computers are replacing human writers, and you don't even understand it. You read news on the internet and think that someone wrote it. But in fact, there is a high probability that they were written by something, namely a special program that was developed in order to fill in specific templates with the necessary words, giving out coherent text. Robots are already working in factories, creating works of art, composing music. Now they are trying their hand at writing.
But is it really worth living writers to fear for their jobs? Is there a chance that they will be supplanted by robots that do not need to rest, receive a salary, or take sick leave? This topic is very relevant today, so it is worth considering it in more detail in order to understand at what stage the writer's rebellion of robots is and how it threatens humanity. What will the media look like in a year or ten years from now, and will this lead to better content quality? Are robots good enough to replace humans?
Writing robots are taking over the world
For example, the Associated Press already uses them. These robotic journalists don't need insurance or a salary, they don't need a vacation, they don't plan their old age. They don't even need to sleep. This allows the publication to respond to unforeseen events, such as earthquakes, in real time, without having to take people out of their sleep. Moreover, this publication is not alone in this endeavor. Fox automatically generates some sports news, Yahoo uses similar technology to create reports for individual users. And Automated Insights has launched a free service based on Wordsmith technology, which is used to generate content for companies like the Associated Press. Like its competitors, Automated Insights typically interacts with large customers,to create templates that Wordsmith can then fill with text. However, this new service allows anyone to create their own templates and populate them with data. The company has taken the technology to the next level, as the service promises to create thousands of unique, personalized articles in the time it takes a person to write just one article.
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But could an AI-generated copy fool a human reader? Unfortunately yes
In a recent study, scientists were able to trick one-third of the judges at a scientific conference into believing that the computer program was a 13-year-old boy from Ukraine named Yevgeniy Gustman. For the first time, a machine has been able to pass the Turing test, which measures the ability of a robot to exhibit behavior that is human equivalent or indistinguishable from it.
Will 2018 mark the beginning of a new era?Does this mean that a new era of humanoid artificial intelligence has arrived? Not really. Many scholars believe that the researchers managed to deceive the judges, as the program pretended to be a person for whom English is not native. However, these programs, or chatbots, appear on the Internet more and more often. The study found that 61.5 percent of Internet traffic in the modern world is generated by automated bots. Most readers will probably roll their eyes at this point. How can you be deceived by a robot posing as a human? And it is these low expectations that bots rely on. This explains why they prefer to pretend to be poor English speakers. This also explainswhy the eminent psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein once fell in love with a bot, believing it was an attractive Russian woman.
Rise of the Machines
Unfortunately for creative people, the talent of robots is not limited to mimicking teen speech or suspicious online phishing. Thanks to technical developments, sophisticated algorithms have been created that transform the analytical operations of the left hemisphere of the brain into creative projects of the right hemisphere of the brain. For example, researchers at the University of Malaga (Spain) have developed a program called Lamus that can compose music using a unique and complex algorithm. Robots have also learned to draw and develop computer games. However, the most frightening example of the development of machines for humans is the emergence of robot writers.
Scary Predictions for Human Authors
Artificial intelligence algorithms have learned to write political speeches, and the first books written by artificial intelligence have appeared on sale in bookstores. So many writers give up the good old paper and pens in order to simply write code for the program, which will subsequently write new texts for them. The resulting prose may not be perfect, but that doesn't make the very existence of such robotic writers any more daunting for those who make their living with their words.
Hiring robot
If the mention of robots who write bestsellers, compose music and paint masterpieces was not so shocking for you, then here's another piece of news for you. Your CEO may be considering a robot for your position right now. Research shows that by the end of this year, robotic writers will create about 20 percent of the business content you read, and three million workers will be controlled by so-called "robot bosses." In addition, experts predict that by 2025, already 90 percent of the news read by the public will be generated by computers.
But is the copy good enough?
For now, writers don't have to worry. Robots can use fairly predictable language in large numbers. Moreover, the value of a human writer begins and ends with more than words. Its value depends largely on its ideas. The topic of the article engages readers with the specific style, perspective and opinion of the author regarding recent events and issues. There are certain elements of the text that humanize the context, engage the reader, and create a tone that suits the target audience. Can the robot respond to comments and questions about the article it wrote? And do readers want to communicate with a robot about an article when they know that there is no human mind behind the concept?
What will be next?It is highly unlikely that writers will be completely replaced by robots in the near future. Experts, who predict global changes by 2025, express the following opinion: “This does not mean that robots will replace 90 percent of all journalists. This means that the volume of materials published with the help of robots will increase significantly. While artificial intelligence is evolving at a rapid pace, artificial creativity is a completely different field. And if a robot shows signs of creative thinking, is the machine creative, or is it the programmer who created it? This is an incredible topic for reflection and discussion, and it will be actively discussed in the coming years, as well as the authors (so far human) will write articles about it that you can comment on and discuss not with bots, but with other people.who are passionate about high technologies.
Marina Ilyushenko
