a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3530 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If An Algorithm Wrote This, How Would You Know?

The first one sounds spammy. Not mentioned by the article: most writing algorithms are also tuned (however mildly) for SEO since their whole purpose is to generate content for algorithmic search engine ranking.

In other words, algorithms write for other algorithms, not for you. See enough of their bullshit and you'll recognize it quickly.

That doesn't really matter, though. Both blocks are wretched. Copywriting is a fairly thankless task at best but a decent writer can make the boring stuff interesting. The top block is an artificial attempt to make statistics interesting while the bottom block is burying the lede. What the article proves is that humans can write as badly as algorithms, not that algorithms can write as well as humans.

Back in the dark ages (1991) we decided to type gibberish in 4-15 letter strings into MacWrite and then spellcheck it. The results sounded remarkably similar to Skinny Puppy lyrics. They were not, however, Skinny Puppy lyrics and while many people couldn't immediately tell which was computer and which was Nivek Ogre, one is definitely better.

A Pollack is still a Pollack even if most people just think it's drips on canvas.





coffeesp00ns  ·  3530 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    A Pollack is still a Pollack even if most people just think it's drips on canvas.

It's much the same for serialist music. when it's performed live and someone misses a note, it's surprisingly easy to notice.

    Back in the dark ages (1991) we decided to type gibberish in 4-15 letter strings into MacWrite and then spellcheck it. The results sounded remarkably similar to Skinny Puppy lyrics. They were not, however, Skinny Puppy lyrics and while many people couldn't immediately tell which was computer and which was Nivek Ogre, one is definitely better.

I'd be interested to see this if it was still hanging around the internet anywhere. would this even work with modern spellcheck?

rob05c  ·  3529 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What the article proves is that humans can write as badly as algorithms, not that algorithms can write as well as humans.

    Detective Spooner: Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?

    Sonny: Can you?

user-inactivated  ·  3529 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?

AARON can, but I don't think you can consistently call AARON's paintings his and not call, say, Pixar movies Renderman's.

Kafke  ·  3529 days ago  ·  link  ·  

What's the difference between a human and a sufficiently sophisticated biological computer?

rob05c  ·  3528 days ago  ·  link  ·  

A spleen. And only one can pass the Voight-Kampff test. But mostly the spleen.