Your Editor is a Robot

[Paul Whybrow]

There's no need to worry about dealing with troublesome human-beings anymore, when it comes to having your precious manuscript edited. IBM has unveiled the Watson Tone Analyzer.

I don't think that it actually says "I don't like your tone" in a menacing way, as it's far too geeky and polite for such malevolence. I cut and pasted a gruesome section of my novel into the demo tone analyzer, in which the corpse of a victim is found after laying outside for a week. The feedback that I was offered gave my 500 words an emotional tone of 3%, a social tone of 91% and a writing tone of 5% - well, there's nothing more social than standing around a well-rotted body!

http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/indie-authors-will-soon-be-using-robots-to-edit-their-ebooks

I can see this artificial intelligence method of analysing one's writing as being useful to weed out repetition, though that can be done using the word search function of your writing software - and, believe me, it's a frightening thing to do. How accurate such software can ever be in judging the feel of your writing, and offering alternative words that convey more of the mood you were striving to achieve, I really don't know.

The robots are taking over - don't say that, say this!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Gawd....but who wrote the programme?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Gawd....but who wrote the programme?

Another robot, probably...

 

[Amber Zade]

There's no need to worry about dealing with troublesome human-beings anymore, when it comes to having your precious manuscript edited. IBM has unveiled the Watson Tone Analyzer.

I don't think that it actually says "I don't like your tone" in a menacing way, as it's far too geeky and polite for such malevolence. I cut and pasted a gruesome section of my novel into the demo tone analyzer, in which the corpse of a victim is found after laying outside for a week. The feedback that I was offered gave my 500 words an emotional tone of 3%, a social tone of 91% and a writing tone of 5% - well, there's nothing more social than standing around a well-rotted body!

http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/indie-authors-will-soon-be-using-robots-to-edit-their-ebooks

I can see this artificial intelligence method of analysing one's writing as being useful to weed out repetition, though that can be done using the word search function of your writing software - and, believe me, it's a frightening thing to do. How accurate such software can ever be in judging the feel of your writing, and offering alternative words that convey more of the mood you were striving to achieve, I really don't know.

The robots are taking over - don't say that, say this!

When I went back to school, I started at a community college. I had to take an placement exam. I think because I didn't have my official 4 year transcript from a university and my SAT scores were too old. So...whatever. My writing was scored by a computer. It took seconds. That isn't okay. lol I got a good score, still not okay.

 

[Bernard Stacey]

Word cloud is a good way of looking for too oft repeated words and I do use that but I'm not sure what I'd make of an emotional tone score of 3%.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Word cloud is a good way of looking for too oft repeated words and I do use that but I'm not sure what I'd make of an emotional tone score of 3%.

I'm not sure how the algorithm works, though it appears to score words by various criteria as indicators of mood. Looking at the writing sample that I gave it, the policemen involved are showing professional restraint as they examine a corpse, so perhaps the Watson Tone Analyzer recognised that I hadn't used emotive language.

What freaks me out about such technology, is that there's always uses found for it that go beyond the inventor's original intentions - and they're often malign. Just think of what's happened with drones, miniature surveillance cameras and 3D printers. What will this tone analyzer be used for next - job applications, answers on tax returns, responses to interrogations? It's worth remembering that things such as lie-detector machines and graphology have long been shown to have no verifiable scientific worth, yet they're still used by the police and employers.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Robots are not to be trusted.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Weird — I dropped in the first chapter of The First Vision, and I got Emotional 2% (primarily Negative and Anger), Social 92% (primarily Openness and Agreeableness), and Writing Tone 4% (primarily Analytical and Tentative).

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Weird — I dropped in the first chapter of The First Vision, and I got Emotional 2% (primarily Negative and Anger), Social 92% (primarily Openness and Agreeableness), and Writing Tone 4% (primarily Analytical and Tentative).

The F.B.I. are analysing these results right now...

 

[Jason Byrne]

Yeah... kill, death, die, scream, roar... they show up a lot...

 

[Carol Rose]

Okay. Got curious and put in the sex scene I'm working on in my WIP right now. Here are the results. Not sure how I feel about this… LOL!!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

3%, 88%, 7%, which leaves 2% lost! I can't read Carol's, but looks the same! Cheerfulness 21, negative 3, anger 0 (hm), agreeableness 195 (too much?), consciousness 141, openness 311, Analytical 34, confident 5, and tentative 18.
I wonder what it means

 

[Carol Rose]

3%, 88%, 7%, which leaves 2% lost! I can't read Carol's, but looks the same! Cheerfulness 21, negative 3, anger 0 (hm), agreeableness 195 (too much?), consciousness 141, openness 311, Analytical 34, confident 5, and tentative 18.
I wonder what it means

It means absolutely nothing. LOL!!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I thought it meant they could add up

 

[Carol Rose]

I thought it meant they could add up

LOL!!

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Yeah... kill, death, die, scream, roar... they show up a lot...

I don't even want to put mine in. I have people beaten and burned to death, not to mention the shootings...

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Couldn't, I mean couldn't! Too many distractions lol