Robots writing newspapers

    Whether it's robots working as hotel receptionists or artificial intelligence creating poetry, it's becoming more and more common to read about technology doing the jobs of humans.

    And now, it seems that software is even capable of writing news stories –such as the very one you're reading.

    Recently the Press Association (PA), a UK news service, has created a computer program that's capable of creating articles that are almost impossible to tell apart from those written by human journalists.

    Called “robo-journalism”, such software “teaches” itself by analyzing thousands of news stories written by humans. The PA's software is already so advanced that many UK newspapers and websites publish articles created by it.

    According to the Reuters Institute of Journalism, many publishers are using robo-journalism to release interesting information quickly, from election results to official figures on social issues. For example, The Washington Post has its own robo-journalism software, Heliograf. Heliograf “wrote “over 850 articles in 2017, as well as hundreds of social media posts.

    So what does this mean for regular journalists?

    “We're naturally wary about any technology that could replace human beings,” Fredrick Kunkle, a Washington Post reporter, told Wired.

    “But this technology seems to have taken over only some of the work that nobody else wants to do.” “Indeed, it appears that robo-journalism software is designed to help humans, rather than take away their jobs.

    “In the future, Heliograf could do things like search the web to see what people are talking about, check The Washington Post to see if that story is being covered, and, if not, alert(提醒) editors or just write the piece itself.”Wired reporter Joe Keoha wrote.

    However, Joshua Benton at Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab believes that while robo-jounalism is undoubtedly going to become more present in newsrooms, nothing can replace traditional human creativity.

“Good journalism is not just a matter of inputs and outputs, it is a craft(技艺) that has developed over decades, “ he told BBC News. “The really difficult part of what professional journalists do—carefully weighing information and presenting balanced , contextualized(全景式的) stories —will be very hard for machines to master.

    When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Sometimes she said I was thin. Sometimes she said I was lazy. Other times she said I wasn't a good student. And still other times she said I talked too much, and so on. I tried to put up with her.

    At last, I became very angry with her. With tears in my eyes, I ran to my father, who listened to me quietly and asked, "Are the things she said true or false? Mary, haven't you ever wondered what you're really like? Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that agree with her comments. Pay no attention to the things she said that don't concern you."

    I did as he told me. Much to my surprise, I discovered that over half the things were true. I brought the list back to my dad. He refused to take it. "That's just for you," he said. "You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. When something said about you is true, you'll find it will be helpful to you. Don't shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you think is right."

    Many years have passed. The situation often appears in my mind. In our life we often meet with some trouble and we often go to someone and ask for advice. Some advice you will treasure all your life!

    You have probably heard of the Mozart effect. It's the idea that if children or even babies listen to music composed by Mozart, they will become more intelligent. A quick Internet search reveals plenty of products to assist you in the task. Whatever your age is there are CDs and books to help you taste the power of Mozart's music, but when it comes to scientific evidence that it can make you more clever, the picture is more mixed.

    The phrase "the Mozart effect" was made up in 1991, but it was a study described two years later in the journal Nature that sparked real media and public interest about the idea that listening to classical music somehow improves the brain. It is one of those ideas that sound reasonable. Mozart was undoubtedly a genius himself; his music is complex and there is a hope that if we listen to enough of it, we'll become more intelligent.

    The idea took off, with thousands of parents playing Mozart to their children, and in 1998 Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the US, even asked for money to be set aside in the state budget so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. It was not just babies and children who were exposed to Mozart's music on purpose, even an Italian farmer proudly explained that the cows were played Mozart three times a day to help them produce better milk.

    I'll leave the debate on the impact on milk yield to farmers, but what about the evidence that listening to Mozart makes people more intelligent? More research was carried out but an analysis of sixteen different studies confirmed that listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to handle shapes mentally, but the benefits are short-lived and it doesn't make us more intelligent.

    D. Mike Miles hadn't had a stable job in years. He bounced around from temporary agency to temporary agency, never sure when his last day would be. Sometimes, he lost a job with less than a day's notice. This was not due to a poor work ethic (职业道德) - from arriving early to staying late, Miles said he did everything he could to leave good impressions on employers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the US. But because Miles had a criminal record, he was always cut loose when it was time to let staff go.

    "It was like walking on eggshells. You just never knew when you'd be gone," he said.

    After his release from prison in 2007, Miles struggled to find stability – both mentally and financially. During this time, he lived in his mother's house and she helped him raise his daughter. When his mom passed away two years later, Miles said he became more determined than ever to create a healthy environment for his family.

    "I'm all she has, and she's all I have," he said. "I had to build a whole new relationship with my daughter, while building a whole new life for myself."

    It wasn't until October 2015, nearly a decade after he got out of prison, that a cousin told Miles about a food company that hires people who have difficulty finding jobs.

    Hoping this would clear up what felt like a thick cloud of uncertainty over his future, Miles submitted an application. He got an interview and soon after that, began his new job. His work involves everything from food production to maintenance (保存), not to mention it pays a livable wage of $15 an hour. He said it's the best job he's ever had.

    Miles' story is rare in Lancaster, where the poverty rate is around 30 percent – about double the national average. This figure annoyed Charlie Crystle, the co-founder and CEO of the company that gave Miles his job.

    Crystle said he wanted to inspire other companies and entrepreneurs (企业家) to rethink their current practices and ignite(引发)conversations about minimum wage and employment opportunities for everyone, including ex-offenders (有犯罪前科的人).

    Beyond providing employment and livable wages, the company also helps employees deal with the many challenges of reentry into society. This means anything from helping them find housing and health benefits to changing their schedules.

    Miles is now saving for a house. "It doesn't have to be a big house," he said. "I just want to be stable."

    Young mums shopping in the Copley Mall in downtown Boston-month found themselves being questioned about their use of soap by students from Harvard Business School usually known as HBS. The students were not doing odd jobs to earn beer money. They were preparing to help a firm in Brazil launch an antibacterial cleanser.

    The 900 students arriving in Boston this summer for their two-year course were told that they would be subjects. The new practical addition to HBS's curriculum is known as "FIELD" that stands for Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development. Fieldwork — ie, going out and talking to people — is a big change for HBS.

    Not all the staff and students were overjoyed to be experimented on. But the man responsible, Nitin Nohria, head of HBS, says that "If it works, the FIELD method could become an equal partner to the case method."

    What happens in the second year of the new course is still being worked out. But the first year has three elements. First, team-building exercises. Students take turns to lead a group engaged in a project. They learn to cooperate and to give and take feedback. Second, students will be sent to work for a week with one of more than 140 firms in 11 countries. In the third part of the course, students will be given eight weeks, and seed money of ＄3,000 each, to launch a small company. The most successful, as voted by their fellow students, will get more funding. The experiment does not come cheap, adding 5-10% to the course's cost, which HBS will bear while it figures out what works.

There are so many choices when you go shopping. You have to check the sell — by dates so that you know how long you can store and use the food you are purchasing.

But do you know that the best sell — by dates on food packaging don't really tell you if the food is safe to eat. The food may not last as long as it says if it isn't stored correctly at any point of the distribution chain. Now there is food packaging that can detect and change colors if the food has gone bad.

Each American wastes 103 pounds of spoiled food out of the refrigerator every year. The new smart packaging from Primitives Biodesign—a new company that operates out of a lab at Indibio, a biotech accelerator in San Francisco-can help to reduce this huge waste of food.

The basic material that doesn't contain sensing material is made from algae and can block oxygen more effectively than regular film, so the food stays fresher for a longer time. Since it is made from a natural substance, it can also break down in nature.

Making the film smart is the thorny part. Luckily, the team managed to use a process that is like the way nature responds to changes in the environment. The mechanism responds like the way flowers emit compounds to change colors.

"It could be supplement packaging that indicate when it's been tampered with by changing color to tell you that it's no ledger safe," says Kan. She explained that the new packaging can be used on food products to fell if the food has turned bad before someone has to smell or taste it.

The company has proven in lab tests that the technology works and now they are working on how to develop commercial uses for it. The added safety features will come out later. Helping to control food waste in products like meat or cheese which have high greenhouse gas emissions will also help to reduce climate change.