How to write a novel with machine learning

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Author Robin Sloan writes about machine learning, but he's writing with it too. His recent novel Sourdough has been hailed as one of the best and most accurate novels about machine learning ever published. It explores the inner life of a robot arm programmer in San Francisco, who figures out that she'd rather make bread than build robots. But maybe, just maybe, her robot arm can help make the bread even better. In the wake of that novel, Robin also built <A HREF="https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/writing-with-the-machine/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">a little bot</A> that will help you write science fiction, by autocompleting your sentences with phrases taken from a massive corpus of sci-fi stories.
At the next Ars Technica Live, we'll be talking to Robin about the reality and fiction of machine learning, as well as what it means to write in the age of bots. Join Ars Technica's editor-at-large Annalee Newitz and senior editor Cyrus Farivar in conversation with Robin on August 8 at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland. There will be plenty of time for audience questions, too. Doors are at 7 PM and the event starts at 7:30. Tickets are free.
Robin is the author of the novels <A HREF="https://www.robinsloan.com/books/penumbra" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore</A>, a New York Times bestseller published in 2012, and <A HREF="https://www.robinsloan.com/books/sourdough" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sourdough</A>, new in 2017. He's been doing experiments that use <A HREF="https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/writing-with-the-machine/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">machine learning</A> to auto-generate sentences for sci-fi stories, and he's pretty sure that the audiobook for his second novel is the world's first to include sound generated by a neural network. Previously he worked at the Poynter Institute, Current TV, and Twitter, where he tried to figure out the future of media.
Ars Technica Live is a monthly series spotlighting people who are working at the cutting edge of technology, science, and culture. It's held the second Wednesday of every month at Eli's.

Eli's Mile High Club

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How to write a novel with machine learning

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