A.I. Software Is Learning To Write Prose — Could It Get Good Enough To Write A ‘New Yorker’ Piece?

John Seabrook does a deep dive into how artificial intelligence programs learn the rules of English grammar and syntax and teach themselves how to predict what you, at the keyboard, might write next — and even, eventually, to write the way you do. Then he and a computer scientist feed a program the entire New Yorker nonfiction archive as a dataset to learn from, and they ask it to try, based on the opening, to complete a real New Yorker article. – The New Yorker

African Women Authors Make Historical Fiction Their Own

“African historical fiction is far from a new genre – is there a more globally known work of African fiction, after all, than Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic story of Nigeria at the moment of British colonization, Things Fall Apart? But in recent years, the genre has been reinvented by a new generation of African writers. And this time around, most of them are women.” – The Christian Science Monitor

Does Putting Students Into Reading Levels Discourage Reading?

“Quantifiable measurements give students, teachers and administrators the confidence and assurance of “progress”: There is a sense of comfort in advancing from one designated level to the next. But reading is not a science. When we place significant value on quantifiable measures, we also might be pushing readers away from an intrinsic love of reading — and ignoring the great complexity of literature that is simply immeasurable.” – Washington Post

A Court Denies Audible’s Request For A Settlement Conference In The Captions Case

Audible may be trying to get away from this case – but publishers are ready to wade right in. “Captions is a feature that scrolls a few words of an AI-generated transcription along with a digital audiobook as it plays in the Audible app. Publishers say the program is infringing, and have moved for a preliminary injunction that would bar Audible from using the publishers’ works in the program until their copyright claim is resolved.” – Publishers Weekly