AI now automates formula news in business and sports. How far can it go?
Some researchers have recently claimed that they are frightened to release a new AI writing tool they have developed:
One concern they have is that the technology would be used to turbo-charge fake news operations. The Guardian published a fake news article written by the software along with its coverage of the research. The article is readable and contains fake quotes that are on topic and realistic. The grammar is better than a lot what you’d see from fake news content mills. And according to The Guardian’s Alex Hern, it only took 15 seconds for the bot to write the article. Rhett Jones, “Elon Musk-backed AI Company Claims It Made a Text Generator That’s Too Dangerous to Release” at Gizmodo
The researchers work for the non-profit AI research group OpenAI, backed by entrepreneur-inventor Elon Musk. They have released only a small model to work with and a paper, citing fear of how “bad actors” might use a bigger model. Denyse O’Leary, “Who’s afraid of AI that can write the news?” at Mind Matters
It’s not that robots are really thinking up new things so much as that so much of what passes for news coverage doesn’t require much thought. One outcome of the digital revolution is that mass media have tended to become characters in and not narrators of public stories. It’s becoming more important than ever to seek out news sources you can personally trust.
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See also: If a robot read the news, would you notice a difference?
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