How to Write 200,000 Books Without Breaking a Sweat

For years now I’ve suspected that some of the summer blockbusters produced by the Hollywood machine were secretly written by computers. The scripts are so formulaic, the characters so transparently designed to appeal to target demographics, that it’s hard to believe any self-respecting screenwriter could be so cynical and calculating.

In the meantime, a business school professor has taught computers how to crank out books by the thousands. Apparently the output is mediocre but sufficiently useful and intelligible to enjoy some “long tail” success.

His company, the Icon Group International, is … generating significant total sales by adding up tens of thousands of what might be called worst sellers. For example, a search at the Galter Health Sciences Library of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University found half a dozen Icon books, mainly in the library for patients and their families.

How long will it be before true “works of art” can be produced by machines? Probably quite a while, but I believe it will happen eventually. After all, the aforementioned robot authors have recently moved on from medical texts to simple poems.