Amazon Set to Produce AI Generated Novels

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Hmmm. I really don’t see what’s difficult about a roundabout. You enter it exactly as if you were at a junction waiting to turn left (right in the US) - ie the traffic on the roundabout has priority over that waiting to enter it. Once you’re on it, you turn left (right) off it like any normal left (right) turn.

Yes, they’re far better than traffic lights because there’s no delay when the road is quiet.

I totally agree with you. But if you've never used a roundabout before they can be challenging.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Are they so easy with four parallel lanes and bumper to bumper traffic where you have to spiral inwards and then outwards?

Really? In a country where roundabouts are ubiquitous, yes. This is a roundabout I was navigating daily until recently.

Roundabouts are very common here. Navigating them is part of the driving test.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Are they so easy with four parallel lanes and bumper to bumper traffic where you have to spiral inwards and then outwards?

I said that the principle was straightforward. No congested four-lane road is fun to drive on.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Roundabouts are very common here. Navigating them is part of the driving test.

Ever been to Milton Keynes? That’s another fun place for roundabouts . For our overseas friends, MK is a “new town” (that is, a planned town, rather than one that spontaneously “grew”). Highly unusually for Britain, it’s laid out in a grid, with roundabouts at all the intersections.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Ever been to Milton Keynes? That’s another fun place for roundabouts . For our overseas friends, MK is a “new town” (that is, a planned town, rather than one that spontaneously “grew”). Highly unusually for Britain, it’s laid out in a grid, with roundabouts at all the intersections.

Oh yes. The roundabouts in Milton Keynes weren't difficult other than that they all looked the same. I remember having to count the roundabouts rather than recognising any landmarks

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Oh yes. The roundabouts in Milton Keynes weren't difficult other than that they all looked the same. I remember having to count the roundabouts rather than recognising any landmarks

Yes, in the days before sat nav you could go round and round all day and not be able to find your way out .

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I said that the principle was straightforward. No congested four-lane road is fun to drive on.

Now add drivers who don't know how to drive on a quarter inch of snow.
That is DC.
Look at a street map of DC.

For the record: the circles were designed to serve as artillery emplacements for mob control.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...nfant_plan.jpg

[HarryT]

But, on the other hand:

Studies have shown that roundabouts are safer than traditional stop sign or signal-controlled intersections.

Roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or signals were previously used for traffic control, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Studies by the IIHS and Federal Highway Administration have shown that roundabouts typically achieve:

A 37 percent reduction in overall collisions
A 75 percent reduction in injury collisions
A 90 percent reduction in fatality collisions
A 40 percent reduction in pedestrian collisions
...

https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Safety/roun...s/benefits.htm

I’m not doubting for a moment that Washington DC is a perfectly ghastly place to drive. I wouldn’t dream of driving in London. The facts, however, do support the idea that roundabouts are both more efficient and safer than junctions with traffic lights.

[gmw]

There is an old adage whose relevance has not faded: too err is human, but it takes a computer to really <bleep> up.

Still, I can't see any way it's not going to happen - eventually. I think there's a good chance that the long term averaged stats are likely to come out in favour of self-driven even if the occasional self-driven does go completely haywire (or gets hacked) and causes a high blip on the graph.

[Apache]

Quite a few small southern towns converted the center of their towns in to roundabouts. Monticello, Florida and Marietta, Georgia are two. Traffic flow is very fluid and much safer.
Apache

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

There will be humans in there...via telepresence.

You can hope the connection isn't cut at the wrong time. And that the human at home is alert at all times.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Pizza_Cant_Read

The idea of Amazon using algorithms to try and lock down some sort of formula for interesting content, based on observations of Netflix and Chinese tech media companies doing similar, is only speculation... you are right. I will also freely admit that it is my personal belief based on reading AI news that such experimentation is inevitable but of course I wouldn't ask for you to speculate on that speculation. I first read this article on Slashdot, where there are already many comments from people debating the technological feasibility of AI generated novels and I didn't come here for more of the same. But MobileRead is an interesting and unique community which straddles both tech and writing which is why I asked:

"Assuming Google and major publishers move in this direction, what do writers think about machines "taking away jobs" and if such software is ever released under an open source license would you consider using it to prototype your own stories and to otherwise accelerate your own release cycle?"

Cheers for first response! I hoped this would create an interesting conversation based on tools like this being used by independent authors as well as giant god-Corps but it is all outside my purview. Heck... I feel insecure posting something of any length, even anonymously online because I know I can't write my way out of a wet paper bag

-PB

So I wrote about this over on my blog, and commenters helped me to understand that what Quartz is proposing actually has nothing to do with AI. They're actually talking about using garden variety analytics to track reading habits, only they know jack squat about the topic so they confused it with AI. (or maybe they wanted the clickbait)

Analytics is not new, and it has little to do with AI. Many news sites use it in some form, and have done so for over a decade.

[DNSB]

Continuing with roundabouts, I "love" some of the new roundabouts in my area. The city didn't get rid of the 4 way stop signs, they just added an island in the middle of the intersection making it near impossible for any vehicle larger than a Scion IQ to go around the roundabout without clipping a curb thus yielding the worst of both worlds -- a scenario dear to a city planner's heart.

Anyone else remember the Mythbuster's episode MythBusters: Four-way stop vs. Roundabout? They at least had the common sense to build their roundabout large enough to be useful.

[Pizza_Cant_Read]

I think that was a similar conclusion many drew and even I admitted that anything else is speculation. But what about the /futtuuuuuuurrrreeeeeee/

*queues the twilight zone music*

I assume any decent editor can copy and paste stories with similar stories, change the characters and scenery enough to call it theirs. The first story generators might only do something like that. There are many different ways such information could be utilized according to pragmatism and or profitability, both a constantly moving target. Maybe because my age has a 3 in front of it now, I think about the use of technology in surveillance and despite what others have said, there are trucks that are self driving to some extent that have been in operation for a couple years. Companies like Walmart have placed orders for the Tesla semi trucks.... and yeah, this technology (automation through algorithms, AI whatever) is going everywhere, eventually. It's the timeframe that is iffy.

I am all for the roundabouts though. Wouldn't want to drive through one but I have never had my driving license so it is all just theoretical. They are fun as a passenger? lol

Feel like I have said the same thing in different ways a few times but it isn't important. I just enjoy reading what others have to say about this topic and the segues only enhance the conversation in new an inventive ways! Just proud to have broken out of the lounge

Originally Posted by Nate the great

So I wrote about this over on my blog, and commenters helped me to understand that what Quartz is proposing actually has nothing to do with AI. They're actually talking about using garden variety analytics to track reading habits, only they know jack squat about the topic so they confused it with AI. (or maybe they wanted the clickbait)

Analytics is not new, and it has little to do with AI. Many news sites use it in some form, and have done so for over a decade.

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by gmw

There is an old adage whose relevance has not faded: too err is human, but it takes a computer to really <bleep> up.

The thing is, 99.9% of the time, when computers "make mistakes" it's actually a programmer who made it. Properly programmed computers are incredibly safe devices. Properly programming things is also much more difficult (and costly) than churning out code, of course.

But, there are industrial domains where programmers have to stick to a very high quality standard. One of them is aeronautics (and, currently, the automobile industry is lagging very far behind that).

Self-driving cars are actually likely to induce much better practices, simply because the makers of self-driving cars have to convince the general public (and decision makers) that their stuff is really safe to allow on the roads. There is a huge perception barrier to overcome.

(What humans have, and computers only have when they have been explicitly programmed for, is "oh sh**" reflexes: when something that should never happen, happens, they try to improvise an emergency response. My guess is that's where your adage comes from - a computer with no such "unexpected situation" failsafes will happily go on doing whatever it was doing, increasing the damage tenfold)