It might be concerned with aliens, outer space and dimensional jumping for now, but ‘sci-fi’ might have to be redefined if the latest advances in automated writing continue apace.

Software that can construct sentences, analyse data and even put a ‘spin’ on a news story are threatening to make the newsdesk and the author’s writing room very different places.

The end for journalists?

Journalism isn’t complicated. The popularity of online news stories can be tracked – and therefore the importance of news easily ranked – while almost everything is written using the inverted pyramid structure. Since automated writing software can already do most of that, are we looking at the last generation of human journalists?

Narrative Science’s Quill is the leading automated writing software title. It transforms structured data into readable, plain English stories that are identical to those written by humans, though at far greater speeds. “Quill’s power lies in the fact that it is a synthesis of data analytics, artificial intelligence and editorial expertise,” says Kris Hammond, Chief Technology Operator at Narrative Science.

See: Tech Radar

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