10 Scary Advancements in AI

10. Writers May Soon Be Extinct

Now this is offensive on a personal level. The complete disrespect for the narrative craft has spurred some smarty pants tucked away in a lab to try and steal stories from people (and money from my wallet). Last January, the AP began using robots to draft financial stories. Apparently the Associated Press thinks all you need to write is the facts and knowledge of a style guide (who cares if that’s true!). The program stealing jobs is called Wordsmith, which was produced by Automated Insights. “According to AI’s public relations manager James Kotecki, the Wordsmith platform generates millions of articles per week; other partners include Allstate, Comcast, and Yahoo, whose fantasy football reports are automated. Kotecki estimates the company’s system can produce 2,000 articles per second if need be.” Damn.