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Casey Newton Jan 11, 2023

Wow, CNET has published at least 73 articles written by bots. It says they were fact-checked and edited by human beings. For now! https://futurism.com/the-byte/cnet-publishing-articles-by-ai

CNET Is Quietly Publishing Entire Articles Generated By AI

The popular tech site has employed the use of AI for its financial explainer articles under the byline of "CNET Money Staff."

Futurism

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Peter Bronez Jan 12, 2023

@caseynewton @mariyadelano this is actually not entirely new.

#ai has been writing news for a decade. Narrative Science sold software that could write a variety of news articles based on structured data. Here’s a 2012 wired article about it:

https://www.wired.com/2012/04/can-an-algorithm-write-a-better-news-story-than-a-human-reporter/

The big change with this generation (pun intended 😄) is broader topic coverage and less reliance on structured inputs.

Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?

Extra! Extra! AI software takes over sports reporting and financial journalism! Humans panicked!

WIRED

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Peter Bronez

@caseynewton @mariyadelano The “narrate structured data for me” task is mature enough that it’s become just another feature on BI tools.

Tableau acquired Narrative Science in late 2021 https://www.tableau.com/blog/tableau-and-narrative-science-make-data-more-accessible

The tech is now baked into Tableau’s desktop BI tool as their “Data Stories” feature https://www.tableau.com/solutions/ai-analytics/augmented-analytics

Here’s how it works: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/data_stories.htm

Bringing insights to the masses: Tableau + Narrative Science will make data more accessible for everyone

How the acquisition of data storytelling company Narrative Science will help Tableau's customers analyze, build and communicate data in an easy-to-use narrative format.

Tableau