I hesitate to link to this, because it might be just a joke. Well, it looks like a joke that was somehow taken seriously enough to become a business. Sort of.
Introducing Autoblogger! Their bot will write blog posts for you while you’re out having a life. Here’s the hilarious video explaining the “need” for this service:
Autoblogger users give examples of their blog posts and the service will churn out mindless drivel supposedly in the blogger’s style.
Comment spammers have used similar systems in the past. Those systems would try to reword something in the post but then link to fake viagra or something. The idea is to try to make the comment look like its on point – and therefore less likely to get deleted.
Anyway, since we actually respect our readers, Phil and I solemnly vow that The Speculist will remain 100% the product of humans… until the Singularity.
After that, the site will improve exponentially.
UPDATE: I’ve been reminded that The Speculist has already published some nonhuman content. Here’s Phil’s interview with Ray Kurzweil’s chatbot Ramona. But reading that interview proves my point. Bots aren’t ready for primetime blogging just yet.