As also shown by the anatomical assembly, the figures do not even seem "human", but, in their representation in cold colors on a totally abstract, appear as functional appendages of a powerful machine which also produced the three improbable cut flowers held by the figure on the right. As explained by the fact sheet that the museum dedicates to the work, La Litterature "it is one of the first realizations, undoubtedly the most impressive, of the principle of the figure object" which informs the art of the Norman painter.
Books al volo
Imagine wanting to read about any topic and at any level of detail, the books are all available but there is still nothing real, tangible; the words, the thousands of words that will make up the book still lie inanimate and disconnected within a database until someone orders the book from Amazon or another bookstore. At that point, in a very short time, at most 20 minutes, the book will be ready, generated at a very low cost: that of the electric current used to keep the computer on…
The idea of building books on the fly comes from Philip M. Parker, professor of Marketing at the Business School inside. Parker has created software that can write books on specific topics in about 20 minutes. The patented algorithm has so far generated hundreds of thousands of books. In fact, Amazon lists more than 100.000 books attributed to Parker, and more than 700.000 works by his company, the icon Group International, Inc.
Parker is not so much an author as a compiler, but the end result is the same: ships full of written works. Perhaps these books are not the ones people read most often. In fact, the most common categories concern technical and business reports, language dictionaries with the pseudonym "Webster's” (which is in the public domain), overviews of rare diseases and crossword books for learning foreign languages. But they all have one thing in common: they are automatically generated by software. The system automates this process through the construction of databases from which, via an interface that allows you to customize one Query, draw information on a certain topic and generate models.
Since ebook digital and services print-on-demand are now the order of the day, the topics are all listed in Amazon without even having been written yet.
Here's how an excerpt from the 2007 patent describes the system: «This invention provides for the automatic creation, marketing and distribution of content. A computer is the author of the contents. The material is automatically formatted in a desired format to generate a content. Content can also be automatically distributed to the recipient. [...] Furthermore, the title can be written on request, in any language and with updated content».
La formula build-content da Query
To be clear, this is not just software, but a real automatic system, designed for writing on a specific topic. The system database is filled with relevant content and specific patterns coded to reflect general knowledge, i.e. result as written by an expert in that particular industry or genre. To prevent copyright infringement, the system is designed to avoid plagiarism. In fact, the patent aims to create original works which, however, do not necessarily have to be creative. In other words, if any type of content can be broken down into a formula, then an infinite number of different contents can be packaged with that same formula.
This is how Parker describes the process of algorithmic book creation.
The success (and genius) of this system is that Parker designed the algorithms by simulating the mental process that an expert would necessarily have to do to write on a certain topic. It's "simply" about deconstructing content within a category and Parker has quite a bit of experience in this area, having written at least three books the old-fashioned way. The way the content creation algorithm works (in most cases) allows it to be coded as artificial intelligence.
Il catalog è this
It is instructive to look at a sampling of the list of books attributed to Parker:
- Webster, Slovak-English Synonym Dictionary, price $28,95
- The 2007–2012 World Outlook for wooden toilet seats, price $795
- The world market for rubber condoms. At 2007 Global Perspective Trade, price $325
- The syndrome of Ellis-van Creveld — Dictionary and bibliography for physicians, patients and researchers of the genome Research, price $28,95
- Webster, English-Haiti Creole. Crossword Puzzle: Level 1, price $14.95
Considering that it costs something like $0,20–0,50 to produce a title (equal to the cost of electricity and hardware), the prices shown are almost entirely revenues, even if se they sell very few copies...
In reality, many non-fiction books — like news articles — the topics often boil down to “who, what, where, when, and why” formulas. No matter how current or related information is presented, there needs to be some essential data, even for the most unfamiliar topics. And Parker isn't alone in automating content. Chicago startup Narrative Science produces news, sports and financial articles for Forbes for a while now.
Then, What is the next book genre Parker will target for a new software product? Novels. Even if a novel is a work of fiction, it's no secret that some genres, such as romance novels, also lend themselves to being mathematized. This may not make these works important for their literary value, but they certainly have great entertainment value and, perhaps surprisingly, the romance genre has the largest share of the book market with revenues of approximately $1,37 billion. in 2011.
But can artificial intelligence do creative work like a human? Yes… eventually. Actually the questions to ask are: how soon will this happen? And how relevant will it be? The answers may already be on the horizon if Parker can churn out novels that will be read by the masses. Frankly, any creative work produced by an AI will be a "success" if you read it and think that a human being wrote it, or more accurately that a human intelligence is at the origin of the work.
Now Parker is thinking about creating a content database that goes beyond books and that he can useand the same engine as the ROBObook.
Over i books
But books can be just the beginning. As Parker notes in his video lesson, software should not be limited to written works alone. Using 3D animations and avatars, a wide variety of audio and video formats can be generated that Parker says are in the pipeline. Avatars who read the new stories elaborated by the software could become fashionable, especially if viewers can customize it and decide the level of detail.
Content generation technology could converge with other developments, such as the automatic creation of closed captions to expand the content. The figure of the translator would become essential not only for translating previously produced content but also audio and video in real time. Furthermore, with social blogs allowing people to capture everything that is said or said about them, this data could be used to build real personal biographies.
Finally, if you add statistics on large numbers to the mix, you could have the ability to generate important content all done by purpose-designed computers.
The future of content is becoming increasingly science fiction, yet it still takes a few years before its creation is entirely in the hands of software. But if you have any doubts about where we are going, consider that the first novel written by a computer was already published 7 years ago.
A new assembly line? We too will end up swallowed by Parker's algorithms like poor Charlot by the gears of the machine tool in Modern times?
