Business DayTechnology



September 12, 2011, 10:25 am

Writing Machines — Their Uses and Meaning

A Sunday business column in The New York Times looked at the work of a start-up, Narrative Science, that combines computer science and journalism. Its software takes data and converts it into stories — short summary-style articles so far, but ones that don’t really read as if they were written by a machine.

The early applications include translating sports statistics, housing data and financial reports into text stories. But its founders and investors also see a potentially far larger opportunity. They say all kinds of data inside corporations and governments could be analyzed and become more understandable and useful to humans, if it were translated into narrative form.

The media business may be the Petri dish for this technology, while the real payoff proves to be in the analysis and reporting of corporate and government data, said David Rosenblatt, a former Google executive who is an investor in Narrative Science.

In the corporate market, Mr. Rosenblatt pointed to the flood of new data that inundates advertising agencies and marketing managers, especially for online campaigns — information on media-buying, impressions, click-throughs, ad network tracking and so on. An automated helper to sift through all the data, find trends and present its conclusions in comprehensible English rather than a spreadsheet would be a powerful tool, Mr. Rosenblatt said.

For people who value words, the scientists at Narrative Science have good news. Up to now, the computer tools for helping people make sense of data have mostly been on-screen dashboards that distill mounds of information into graphs or symbols resembling traffic lights — green is good, red is bad.

“Story is a much more accessible medium,” said Kristian Hammond, chief technology officer of Narrative Science and a professor at Northwestern University. “It expresses what’s most important and expresses it first, and in words so it’s understandable to humans.”

“The narrative rules in terms of cognition,” Mr. Hammond said.

All powerful tools tend to be double-edged, which has been true of technology since the earliest days (fire could cook your food or burn your hut down).

The technology Narrative Science is pushing raises Internet-era concerns. “The worry is for a company like Google,” said Oren Etzioni, a professor and artificial intelligence expert at the University of Washington. “If the production of increasingly diverse and high-quality text becomes automated, how will Google be able to detect search spam?”

Search spam typically refers to Web sites, usually with simple answers or lists, that seem to be tailored to try to get high rankings from Google’s search engine, and thus attract ads. Google periodically tweaks its algorithms to drop the rankings of such sites, but it is a never-ending arms race.

In that digital arms race, Mr. Etzoni added, Narrative Science could be a “nuclear weapon.”

Narrative Science says it has not sold its technology to such sites, often called “content farms.”


From The Times

F.T.C. Proposes Updates to Law on Children’s Online Privacy

Aiming to catch up with fast-churning technology that touches children’s lives, the Federal Trade Commission proposed changes to regulations covering online privacy for children.

Research in Motion Posts Disappointing Results and its Shares Fall

Revenue was down 15 percent and sales of its new PlayBook tablet computer fell short of forecasts.

Bits Blog: PayPal Prepares to Expand Offline

PayPal moves closer to allowing consumers to use its service in brick-and-mortar stores.

More on Technology »
Apple Brings Back Final Cut 7

Responding to complaints from professional video editors, Apple has reintroduced the $1000 Final Cut 7, but it can only be purchased through Apple telesales.

App Smart Extra: More Kids Apps

Parents who'd rather offer their children more intellectually engaging fare should consider two new Apple apps, National Geographic's Weird But True and MadPad from Smule.

Tip of the Week: Basic Photo Editing on Flickr

If the photos you post to your Flickr account still have room for improvement, you can perform basic image-editing chores like cropping and adjusting exposure right on the site.

Visit the Blog »
Clorox Puts Focus on 'Bleachable Moments'

Clorox is undertaking an offbeat campaign aimed at younger consumers that includes a significant presence in social media.

A New Executive Producer for ABC's 'World News'

Jon Banner, who produced ABC's "World News" for nearly a decade, is moving to a special projects position at the news division and will be replaced by Michael Corn, a longtime producer of "Good Morning America."

Netflix Stock Falls After Change in Pricing

Netflix stock dropped almost 15 percent after the company said more people were canceling their subscriptions than was expected.

Visit the Blog »
Greenhouse Gas Rule Delayed

The E.P.A. attributes the delay to the complexity of drawing up the rule, not to pressure from a White House besieged by congressional opposition.

A War Against Food Waste

So food manufacturers are groping for strategies that will encourage donations to food banks and composting. (A substantial portion of food is thrown away while still fully edible because of cosmetic blemishes or overstocking.)

Parsing Myth and Reality on Solyndra

Some see the arguments surrounding a solar company's bankruptcy as hyperbole.

Visit the Blog »

About Bits

Bits offers a steady stream of news and analysis on the technology industry throughout the day from New York Times writers and freelancers. We cover start-ups, tech leaders like Google and Apple, enterprise technology, government policies and the way the Internet is changing how we live and work. Read more.

Feedback

Tell us what you like, don’t like and want to read more about. Send us e-mail with your comments

For news tips and press announcements, please use the e-mail links on the blog home page to reach our writers and editors.

Contributors

Nick Bilton
Nick Bilton
Lead Bits blogger, New York

Technology and society, Internet, futurism, video games, business technology

Joshua Brustein
Joshua Brustein
Web Producer, New York

Internet, media, technology and society, policy and law.

Damon Darlin
Damon Darlin
Technology editor, San Francisco

Consumer electronics, consumer issues, pricing

David F. Gallagher
David F. Gallagher
Deputy technology editor, New York

Internet, blogs, search, cellphones

Steve Lohr
Steve Lohr
Reporter, New York

Enterprise computing, economics of technology, Microsoft, I.B.M.

Claire Cain Miller
Claire Cain Miller
Reporter, San Francisco

Google, search, e-commerce, start-ups, digital culture, technology and society.

Matt Richtel
Matt Richtel
Reporter, San Francisco

Consumer electronics, video game business, Silicon Valley, Internet gambling, Internet pornography

Somini Sengupta
Somini Sengupta
Reporter, San Francisco

Technology and society, public policy, privacy.

Suzanne Spector
Suzanne Spector
Deputy Technology Editor, New York

Technology and society, consumer issues, digital culture

David Streitfeld
David Streitfeld
Reporter, San Francisco

Digital publishing, Amazon, gaming, Silicon Valley, technology and society.

Jenna Wortham
Jenna Wortham
Reporter, New York

Internet, Web start-ups, digital culture, communications, convergence, N.Y. tech scene

Archive

Recent Posts

September 15

Plenty of Chatter About a New iPhone

As the excitement for Apple's latest product revs up, chatter about the phone is starting to fly around the Web at warp speeds.

September 15

PayPal Prepares to Expand Offline

PayPal moves closer to allowing consumers to use its service in brick-and-mortar stores.

September 15

India Ink: Lessons From the FlipKart Founders

The founders of India's FlipKart first had to get permission from their parents before starting the company.

September 15

Less Web Tracking Means Less Effective Ads, Researcher Says

If Internet companies cannot track what you do online, they find it harder to pitch you stuff that you may be persuaded to buy, a management professor is telling members of Congress.

September 15

Executives May Be Too Confident on Cybersecurity, Survey Finds

Global executives are confident in their ability to secure their information systems, but few are actually on top of their companies' security issues, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey found.