computerIt’s an old story: as automation gets better, it makes it possible to eliminate jobs and save money. It’s an old story in the physical manufacturing industry, But until recently, writers would have thought they were safe.

But progress marches on. The New York Times has a lengthy article about a computerized article writer that takes statistics and turns them into prose. It can be used on sports games, financial reports, and other statistics that lend themselves to forming narratives.

The leaders of Narrative Science emphasized that their technology would be primarily a low-cost tool for publications to expand and enrich coverage when editorial budgets are under pressure. The company, founded last year, has 20 customers so far. Several are still experimenting with the technology, and Stuart Frankel, the chief executive of Narrative Science, wouldn’t name them. They include newspaper chains seeking to offer automated summary articles for more extensive coverage of local youth sports and to generate articles about the quarterly financial results of local public companies.

“Mostly, we’re doing things that are not being done otherwise,” Mr. Frankel says.

The article discusses how a few customers who were willing to be named have been using the technology for sports summaries and construction reports. They were impressed by how natural the articles seemed, and also by how reasonable the prices were (“less than $10 for each article of about 500 words”).

It’s some distance from that to writing stories that don’t involve statistics, let alone creative works, so most journalists’ and novelists’ careers are probably safe for now. Still, it’s an interesting proof of how progress marches on so that things that were once thought impossible can become commonplace.

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