Robot Writers

EDUCAUSE LEARNING INITIATIVE | JULY 2016

Scenario

As the instructor of an information sciences and technology course, Ann is committed to providing her students with the most relevant and up-to-date information possible. Conventional textbooks, however, typically cannot keep pace with the rapidly changing technology landscape. Looking for an alternative, Ann turns to a robot-writing technology, which is powered by an algorithm and matching technologies, that quickly builds a textbook tailored to her specifications.

Ann logs in to a website and fills out a table of contents with subjects for the 16 chapters in her book. After she adds keywords and descriptions for each chapter, the application generates text for each chapter, using content found in open resources the technology crawls on the web. Ann goes through the book carefully to make sure the volume is precisely how she wants it. Some chapters she leaves as is, and some she edits and mixes with content of her own. Then, instead of asking students to purchase a textbook for the course, Ann has the students use this book in class for free, saving them collectively thousands of dollars.

After seeing the benefits of her textbook in class, Ann decides to turn the tables and have her students build textbooks of their own. She asks them to build a three-chapter text that illustrates how information sciences intersects with their specific majors. One business student chose high-speed trading as his topic. Within an hour, and after three quick iterations, the student had a slim volume that clearly explained how technology affects the trading industry.

By the end of the course, not only had Ann and her students learned about information technology and sciences from the textbooks themselves, but they also benefited from the process of creating and editing those texts. Rather than simply teaching material in a conventional textbook, Ann was able to learn alongside her students. And by using robot writers, the students gained a personalized experience through exploring the connections between information sciences and their own interests by evaluating potential resources and making editorial decisions about the most relevant topics to include in their own custom text.

1 What is it?

Robot writers combine algorithms with natural language generators to produce written content. For some time, robot writers have been used in journalism, typically to generate content that is relatively brief and primarily based on data, such as short articles about sports or financial news. These tools use data—provided by a person or uploaded from another source—and artificial intelligence to compose a narrative. Lately, robot writers have been put to use generating other kinds of content, and some expect that soon these technologies will be able to produce entire textbooks based on online, open-content sources. In this model, instructors would be able to create a textbook for all the students in a course, or individual students could generate their own textbooks. Because the texts would be pulled from open resources, the content would be free and could be shared or edited.

2 How does it work?

Robot writers start with an algorithm and information supplied by a person or other source. A robot devoted to sports journalism, for example, might use scores from the previous evening’s ball games to generate a short recap. In the case of a textbook, an instructor might create a table of contents that outlines the structure of the text and then identify resources that support the entries in that structure. Based on those inputs and the algorithm, the technology generates a text that the instructor can review and adjust as necessary. Alternatively, an instructor could direct the robot writer to generate a short pamphlet about a new engineering concept. Some of these technologies get “smarter” the more they’re used—like Netflix, they gradually “learn” what kind of content the user prefers, becoming more efficient over time.

3 Who’s doing it?

Many major newspapers and magazines have embraced robot writers to generate stories. The Associated Press and Forbes use “robot reporters” to draft content including earnings reports and stories about collegiate sports. The Los Angeles Times uses a robot named Quakebot to automatically create alerts with information about earthquakes. In higher education, Penn State University has developed technology it calls BBookX for the creation of open-source textbooks. By focusing on open educational resource (OER) content, BBookX generates content that can be reused and remixed based on particular learning objectives. Penn State is currently seeking opportunities to make the technology more widely available. In a less noble example—but one that nonetheless illustrates the potential for the technology—scientists at MIT created a tool called SCIGen that generates bogus scientific research papers, of which more than 100 were accepted and published. The papers were later exposed and removed.

4 Why is it significant?

Texts created from open sources can often be generated with little or no cost to the student. In an academic setting, instructors could use these technologies not only to create educational materials but also to rapidly prototype courses. Instead of starting with materials written by someone else that include information the instructor may not need or want to teach, faculty can create materials that include exactly the information they want, in the order they need it. This content can then be edited by the person creating it and shared with others who can in turn mold the text to suit their own needs by mixing it with content of their own. As the content is changed and edited, it evolves to suit the needs of numerous users, giving it a life of its own. Robot writing technologies are some of the first steps toward establishing an entirely new genre of media that is developed through partnerships between people and artificial intelligence programs.

5 What are the downsides?

The benefits of low-cost and highly relevant textbooks must be weighed against at least the appearance that the skill of writing is being devalued in academic settings. With computers pulling text and information from various online resources, copyright and plagiarism are important concerns. Given that robot writers produce “original” material, the definition of derivative works becomes murky, as does the question of who the author is. Many of these issues can be mitigated (and the potential applications extended) by focusing the robot’s attention on open resources and applying a thoughtful editorial process to edit and unify the materials into a coherent resource, but as the tools become more sophisticated, these concerns could get thornier. Other challenges arise from the potential for improper use of the technology, such as students’ using robot writers to generate homework assignments or term papers. Researchers have already developed tools to identify machine-generated writing, leading to a potential arms race between robot writers and detection.

6 Where is it going?

The technology that powers robot writers is constantly improving. Most such tools do more than plug numbers into a prose template. Rather, they have the ability to analyze data and craft a narrative around it. Additionally, these technologies will soon be able to adjust the complexity and reading level of the content they produce based on individual learner needs or other factors. Technologies are being developed that could go beyond data-driven articles and branch out into robot-written fiction and poetry.

7 What are the implications for teaching and learning?

Robot-writing technologies can benefit students and faculty alike. Faculty can use the technology to rapidly prototype—or think through and evaluate—possible course designs. Through the process of quickly creating a textbook, for example, an instructor might realize that a key concept is missing. Alternatively, in the case of quickly evolving topics, a robot writer could help instructors uncover new information that has recently been published. After generating learning materials, instructors could then freely share the volume, cutting costs for students and promoting the sharing of information. For students, creating textbooks or study guides could help them become more invested and immersed in the learning process. Instead of being passive consumers of information, they become active agents, deciding which information is important enough to include and which isn’t. Robot writers also present the opportunity for faculty and students to focus coursework and discussion on higher-order tasks, given that the background information has been generated by machine. Both students and instructors alike benefit from the inherent discoverability of information that robot writers can offer, helping them learn about things they didn’t even know they were looking for. Robot writers provide an opportunity to expand access to a diverse collection of free textbooks, lesson plans, courses, and other free works that are available under open licenses such as Creative Commons.

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