If an algorithm wrote this, how would you even know? | The New York Times

“LET me hazard a guess that you think a real person has written what you’re reading. Maybe you’re right. Maybe not. Perhaps you should ask me to confirm it the way your computer does when it demands that you type those letters and numbers crammed like abstract art into that annoying little box.

Because, these days, a shocking amount of what we’re reading is created not by humans, but by computer algorithms. We probably should have suspected that the information assaulting us 24/7 couldn’t all have been created by people bent over their laptops.

With software creating ever more of what we read, the idea that language is what makes us human is obsolete.

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large