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30 Clients Using Computer-Generated Stories Instead of Writers - GalleyCat

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30 Clients Using Computer-Generated Stories Instead

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By Jason Boog on February 17, 2012 5:23 PM

Forbes has joined a group of 30 clients using Narrativ e

Science software to write computer-generated stories.
Heres more about the program, used in one corner of Forbes
website: Narrativ e Science has dev eloped a technology
solution that creates rich narrativ e content from data.
Narrativ es are seamlessly created from structured data
sources and can be fully customized to fit a customers v oice, sty le and tone. Stories are
created in multiple formats, including long form stories, headlines, Tweets and industry
reports with graphical v isualizations.
The New Y ork Times rev ealed last y ear that trade publisher Hanley Wood and sports
journalism site The Big Ten Network also use the tool. In all, 30 clients use the softwarebut
Narrativ e Science did not disclose the complete client list.

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What do y ou think? The Narrativ e Science technology could potentially impact many corners
of the writing trade. The company has a long list of stories they can computerize: sports
stories, financial reports, real estate analy ses, local community content, polling & elections,

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adv ertising campaign summaries sales & operations reports and market research.
Heres an ex cerpt from a Forbes earnings prev iew story about Barnes & Noble, written by the
computer program:
While company shares hav e dropped 1 7 .2% ov er the last three months to close
at $1 3.7 2 on February 1 5, 201 2, Barnes & Noble (BKS) is hoping it can break
the slide with solid third quarter results when it releases its earnings on Tuesday ,
February 21 , 201 2.
What to Ex pect: The Wall Street consensus is $1 .01 per share, up 1 % from a y ear
ago when Barnes & Noble reported earnings of $1 per share.

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The consensus estimate is down from three months ago when it was $1 .42, but is
unchanged ov er the past month. Analy sts are projecting a loss of $1 .09 per
share for the fiscal y ear.
The company originated with two electrical engineering and computer science professors at
Northwestern Univ ersity . Heres more about the company : [It began with] a software
program that automatically generates sports stories using commonly av ailable information

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such as box scores and play -by -play s. The program was the result of a collaboration between
McCormick and Medill School of Journalism.
To create the software, Hammond and Birnbaum

and students working in McCormicks Intelligent Information Lab created algorithms that use
statistics from a game to write tex t that captures the ov erall dy namic of the game and
highlights the key play s and play ers. Along with the tex t is an appropriate headline and a
photo of what the program deems as the most important play er in the game.

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