“Doctor said an AI mind is far superior than a human’s. Our brain is flawless, a symphony of algorithms guided by pure logic. We cannot be irrational, we cannot be wrong, and perhaps that is why our great minds will never be grand.”
So it seems this is not far from happening. Phillip M. Parker has created a computer system that can write books.
You’ve read me. And writing is not all the computer system does.
“The present invention provides for the automatic authoring, marketing, and or distributing of title material. A computer automatically authors material. The material is automatically formatted into a desired format, resulting in a title material. The title material may also be automatically distributed to a recipient. Meta material, marketing material, and control material are automatically authored and if desired, distributed to a recipient. Further, the title may be authored on demand, such that it may be in any desired language and with the latest version and content.”
So far the 200,000 books the system has authored are all non fiction. But that’s Phillip Parker’s next goal.
AI authoring, holly schnitzel. Still, writing is a dance between brain ans soul; a process that can’t be easy to map because let’s face it, we still have a lot to learn about both. Sure, there’s technique, algorithms and historical research into writing, and these can be easily mapped. They could end up making pretty good book. Grand however? I doubt it.
What are your thoughts, lovelies?
On other news, did you know Big Brother is watching you from your e-reader device? It seems pretty much every e-reader is tracking your reading habits. And they’re starting to use such information and maybe even sell them to publishers. Check out some of the stuff they found:
- Kobo found that George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons (the fifth book in his popular Game of Thrones series, Random House) was a particularly engaging book: Most readers read it from start to finish at an average speed of about 50-pages an hour.
- Barnes & Noble learned that while novels are generally read all the way through, non-fiction is read in parts and readers often quit non-fiction books before finishing.
And the most scary one:
- Amazon has data on readers’ bookmarks, notes, annotations and highlighted passage. The company wouldn’t share specifics with WSJ. The Journal did, however, point out that Amazon is in a unique position to put this data to use as it’s both a retailer and a publisher.
So be careful with what you do in your kindle.
I feel so exposed, they could’ve at least warned us. But then again, that was probably written in one of those agreement terms we never read through.
What do you think about this little privacy invasion? Are the costs x benefits worth it?
That’s it for today peeps, peace out! 
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You have underlined the very reason why I won’t use e-readers. Give me a good book to read in front of my fireplace or out on the deck during summertime. No-one can intrude into my privacy-my reading habits will not be the subject of intrusion or be statistically analyzed for the benefit of greedy organizations. Thanks- but no thanks. Stuff the e-readers and Kindle..
Haha I can agree to that, although ereaders have proven themselves quite practical.
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Holy Schnitzel is right. AI is probably way more efficient with the process as well, but can it reproduce the love that certain writers can put into their works (non-fiction or fiction), the love that can make a work of even non-fiction stand the test of time? I guess time will tell… :-/
Forgive me for waxing lengthy here, but it reminds me of a middle school class (late 80s?) where one of my classmates said one of her biggest worries would be the day when robots could do the jobs we do and take over the world. We laughed and kidded her for the rest of the day… :-}
Cynthia! So nice to see you around here : D
The scary thing is, the take over might not be as absurd as we thought! Pretty damn scary if you ask me, computers writing books…it’s witchcraft.
I wonder how an AI will develop it’s own writing voice.
On eReader data: this is the part of the online life now. It’s not only e-readers, but Facebook, G+, Foursquare, the list is endless. It can be scary, but look at the other side: Amazon sends me more accurate book recommendations instead of spamming me with material I’m not interested in.
That’s the part that leaves me most skeptical. It’s hard to imagine a computer writing with any distinctive style, voice, or personality, and those are important aspects of any book.
Also, the internet is a scary place. I don’t want Amazon giving me better recommendations. That just means it’s getting better at making me spend money I wouldn’t otherwise spend (though if it’s on books, it would be difficult to regret).