{"id":4005,"date":"2022-11-11T10:56:20","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T10:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ukwriterscollege.com\/?p=4005"},"modified":"2025-03-11T21:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T21:29:22","slug":"how-is-technology-and-artificial-intelligence-aiding-or-threatening-the-writing-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/how-is-technology-and-artificial-intelligence-aiding-or-threatening-the-writing-profession\/","title":{"rendered":"How is Technology and Artificial Intelligence Aiding (or Threatening) the Writing Profession?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, technology has crept into the various facets of writing, aiding in its creation and its consumption. But with the advancement of Artificial Intelligence and programming, do we need to start fortifying the keyboard?<\/span><\/h2>\n

BY IAN MIDDLETON<\/p>\n

Every week there is a new technological development in the workplace, whether its driverless cars, <\/span>delivery drones<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>robotic arms serving drinks<\/span><\/a> at the local bar. So how long will it be before the job of the writer is replaced with circuit boards and blinking lights? Well, judging by the most recent output, there are thankfully a few years before that happens.<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

Writing<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is a plethora of writing software packages available. Scrivener, Final Draft and good-old-fashioned Word are all well-used within the writing community. Now, dictation software can be found on that list too. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dragon<\/span><\/i> is an example of a programme that allows budding authors to speak aloud their prose and watch it appear on the screen. It’s an incredibly useful tool for the physically or visually impaired, or for people who prefer vocalising their thoughts. As with all programmes, however, there are still a few bugs in the <\/span>system<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Narration<\/span><\/h3>\n

Technology is starting to muscle-in at the user-end of the creative process too, once your work lands in the hand of the reader. Several years ago Amazon added a new feature to the omnipresent virtual assistant known as Alexia. As well as the Echo device tirelessly listening to your conversation in the hope of an instruction, it can<\/span> now narrate a selection of books to you<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Kevin Tofel at ZDNet comments, \u201cYou\u2019ll have to be willing to hear Alexa\u2019s semi-robotic voice\u2026 instead of hearing professional talent read to you.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But considering it\u2019s free, I imagine most people will let that slide.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, if you yearn for something less robotic, and hate the thought of someone making a living from narrating books, then Google is onto it. They\u2019ve been working on a text-to-speech system known as <\/span>Tacotron 2<\/span><\/i> and recently <\/span>released a selection of samples<\/span><\/a> spoken by a computer and a human – which are indistinguishable from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is all well and good, but what about the livelihood of us hardworking writer-types. How long will it be before the machines are hunched over laptops at the local caf\u00e9 working on their screenplay?<\/span><\/p>\n

Creation<\/span><\/h3>\n

For any Harry Potter fans out there who are interested in fan fiction, they may want to check out <\/span>Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

The developers at <\/span>Botnik<\/span><\/a> created a single chapter instalment using a predictive text keyboard as an entry-level form of artificial intelligence. The software was able to generate a story based on all of the previous Harry Potter novels.<\/span><\/p>\n

As impressive as it sounds, the output leaves a little to be desired, with sentences such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe castle grounds snarled with a wave of magically magnified winds. The sky outside was a great black ceiling, which was full of blood.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLeathery sheets of rain lashed at Harry\u2019s ghost as he walked across the grounds towards the castle. Ron was standing there and doing a kind of frenzied tap dance. He saw Harry and immediately began to eat Hermione\u2019s family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears that for the time being humans have the storytelling business cornered. However, I\u2019m sure taxi drivers, postal workers, bartenders and narrators once believed that too.<\/span><\/p>\n

About the Author
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ian\u00a0Middleton\u00a0completed the Magazine Journalism Course at NZ Writers College with distinction in 2018. While he waits to hear whether his article he wrote on the course will be accepted for publication,\u00a0Ian\u00a0submitted two more articles to New Zealand outdoor adventure magazines, and got both accepted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, technology has crept into the various facets of writing, aiding in its creation and its consumption. But with the advancement of Artificial Intelligence and programming, do we need to start fortifying the keyboard? BY IAN MIDDLETON Every week there is a new technological development in the workplace, whether its driverless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":565,"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105867,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions\/105867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawriterscollege.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}