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Algorithm-Generated Articles Won't Kill the Journalism Star

Posted by Soulskill on from the articles-will-just-be-the-word-'shocking'-repeated-700-times dept.

theodp writes: The AP's announcement that software will write the majority of its earnings reports, argues The Atlantic's Joe Pinsker, doesn't foretell the end of journalism — such reports hardly require humans anyway. Pinsker writes, "While, yes, it's true that algorithms can cram stories about vastly different subjects into the same uncanny monotone — they can cover Little League like Major League Baseball, and World of Warcraft raids like firefights in Iraq — they're really just another handy attempt at sifting through an onslaught of data. Automated Insights' success goes hand-in-hand with the rise of Big Data, and it makes sense that the company's algorithms currently do best when dealing in number-based topics like sports and stocks." So, any chance that Madden-like (video) generated play-by-play technology could one day be applied to live sporting events?

19 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. yeah no kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    journalism killed the journalism star

  2. Journalism died a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    All that's left are propagandists.

    1. Re:Journalism died a long time ago by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Indeed. If they automatize things, we will at least have consistent low quality...

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Journalism died a long time ago by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Indeed. If they automatize things, we will at least have consistent low quality...

      Actually I think the use of algorithms to write articles is great, I'm currently working on an anti-article algorithm that extracts just the facts from algorithm-generated articles and turns them into tweets. So instead of having to plough through a long slew of pseudo-intelligent analysis, all you get are the essential sound bytes: "Cat explodes; canary charged by police", that sort of thing. Pretty soon it'll be bigger than Facebook.

    3. Re:Journalism died a long time ago by kmoser · · Score: 1

      Why not just skim the headlines?

  3. Haha by binarylarry · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe not journalists but perhaps slashdot editors?

    I keed, I keed.

    Kind of.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    1. Re:Haha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Slashdot has always been community-driven, and will be for as long as it lasts. That means the community needs a few carefully edited articles every day.

    2. Re: Haha by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      This does explain Slate, though.

  4. We're in the age of the feuilleton by kruach+aum · · Score: 1

    When you hold money above all else, this is what results.

    On a less depressing note, I heard about this cool game involving glass beads being developed somewhere in Germany.

  5. Madden-like generated play-by-play technology by frovingslosh · · Score: 2

    So, any chance that Madden-like (video) generated play-by-play technology ......

    No chance at all. The software is already too intelligent for that, and not nearly bloated enough.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:Madden-like generated play-by-play technology by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      No chance at all. The software is already too intelligent for that, and not nearly bloated enough.

      Surely it would be a simple matter of causing it to comment on its observations, rather than conclusions.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Earnings reports are in XML now. by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The SEC started requring companies to file their earnings reports in the Extensible Business Reporting Language a few years ago. At first, it was only for big companies; now it's everybody. The SEC displays this info in a standard format on line. Here are the latest earnings for DICE Holdings, Slashdot's parent. Here's the raw XML behind that data. Turning that into verbiage isn't that hard.

    I've been doing this for years at Downside.com, extracting the raw data from the human-readable text. This is now obsolete, but it's still running. Here's the same DICE financial statement as processed by Downside. That's Perl code that's been running for 15 years now. When it started, nobody was doing that. Now that everybody in finance has that data, it's probably time to retire Downside's old extraction engine.

    1. Re:Earnings reports are in XML now. by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 1

      Here's the raw XML behind that data. Turning that into verbiage isn't that hard.

      Not hard, but does it actually make sense to do so? Serious question, since I don't read the reports in question, but if they're so standardized it would seem like it would be easier for everyone involved to just stick with a tabular format of some sort, rather than trying to translate it into a "written" report.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    2. Re:Earnings reports are in XML now. by Animats · · Score: 1

      It would seem like it would be easier for everyone involved to just stick with a tabular format of some sort.

      Everyone who deals with financial statements professionally does that.

  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. What a shame by HanzoSpam · · Score: 1

    The AP's announcement that software will write the majority of its earnings reports, argues The Atlantic's Joe Pinsker, doesn't foretell the end of journalism

    What a shame.

    --

    Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
  9. Is the algorithm called... by Fnord666 · · Score: 1

    Is the algorithm called Hasselton v0.1 by any chance?

    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  10. Re:A matter of perspective by retchdog · · Score: 1

    Many adults can't even handle that, so it's not surprising, really.

    --
    "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  11. Garbage In Gospel Out by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    AP news reporting confesses that it uses a simple reporting template to generate "news." That's news worthy?