By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Remember when computers were supposed to replace humans? Today I found an amusing website that promised to ghostwrite any article using snippets of sentences from already published pieces online. According to the FAQ, it’s legal to use a sentence here or there in a published piece, so this wonder program combines key words into a mashed up finished article the site says you can then sell and make money off of.
Oh really?
So, I signed up and gave it a spin. Since my last article on RealTechNews was about , I decided to let take a crack at the same subject. Using keys words and phrases like “Cell phone TV, mobile TV” and “watching TV on a cell phone,” the software took about 10 minute to assemble a 1,300 word piece. Here is a snippet:
Just as open standards fueled innovation and growth in the cellular phone market, the same will hold true for the digital TV phone market. The cell phones on this page all have streaming TV capability that will allow you watch TV right on your cell phone screen. Show your friends and co-workers that you have the coolest cell phone in town – order your TV cell phone today! DVB-H, or digital video broadcast-handset, works by simultaneously sending a signal to multiple users with a digital TV receiver attached to their cell phone. There are still a few hurdles that need to be cleared to make TV delivery by cell phone feasible. While the Internet and cell phone choices work around the margins of TV fare, these deals involve the most popular programs on TV. Watching TV on the cell phone can’t drain the battery faster than normal conversations and ideally will consume much less power than a conversation. With personal video players still a niche market (and hardly pocketable), the “I want my cell phone TV!” battle cry is practically audible. Photography aside, some cell phone users would prefer to watch TV on their phones, perhaps during their daily commute. In a country with nearly as many drivers as cell phone users, mobile TV might spell disaster. It may seem cool to have TV on your cell phone. Many new models even include streaming video, giving you the ability to watch TV on your cell phone. You can watch TV stories, news and sports clips and even get weather forecasts right on your cell phone screen.
We Say: I’d say you get what you pay for, but this program is something like $39 a month for 50 articles, and we write for free. The injustice! But it’s great to know that good writers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Our favorite from the site is the bizarre reclining woman graphic, like ghostwriting is so realaxing you can’t even sit up and look alive while it happens. Hilarious!
That’s some pretty horrible writing… I don’t know why anyone would use this thing when you can get real people to write better quality stuff for less money (or none at all in some cases
).
Maybe it can be used to win that annual contest for bad writing.
It looks like it’s targeted at people who want to set up a site with “real articles” to fool Google and get ad driven money. If done it with some of the hot-money keywords about cancer cures or diabetes or some such and it just might make money.
(Uhmmm, not that I’ve ever thought about doing anything like that of course.)
I’ve been discussing this product recently at my blog. In addition to producing some less-than Pulitzer quality articles, it also requires an incredible amount of user intervention. I am sure that some sort of robotic writer is on its way, but it definitely isn’t here yet!
I remember playing with a program YEARS ago (somewhere around 1985) that was able to write prose drivel in the style of one of several prolific writers with little more than a few settings.
I have since looked for the program all over the net, but to no avail.
(If I remember correctly, it was written for the Apple II series of computers.)
If anyone else remembers it, write me at bengr@cox.net
(and no, it wasn’t the one about a million monkeys and a million bananas sitting at a million computers writing War and Peace or something like that)
These crazy bitches are ready to do anything from deepthroat to DP to milk a fat cock or two at once: .
if it’s real, I want to buy to promote my website