Computers Go Too Far; Hey -- that's my job you're automating!
Google, the popular Internet search engine, offers a page called Google News, a summary of what's going on in the world produced entirely by computers. Well, I say "entirely," but Google's computers don't actually gather the news. What they do is scan thousands of other Web pages and, using a secret formula, decide what the top stories are. Then they cleverly lift headlines and other material from different news sources, add links to these and other sites, and come up with what appears to be the Web site of an extremely cosmopolitan newspaper.</br></br>It's slightly a bluff. Who knows why the computers chose to feature a New Zealand news site the other day as a way of covering the Miss World imbroglio in Nigeria? But you have to suspect that the explanation lies in the crudeness of the computer's judgment, not its sophistication. Google concedes that its choices of stories and news sources are "occasionally unusual and contradictory," but insists with uncharacteristic pomposity, "it is exactly this variety that makes Google News a valuable source of information on the important issues of the day."</br></br>Which is humbug. People still do it better. But not by much. The day is clearly approaching when editors can be replaced by computers. This requires some urgent rethinking.</br></br>Throughout the revolution of technology and globalization that has been going on for two decades, responsible mainstream commentators, pundits, analysts and miscellaneous gasbags (including this one) have taken the view that progress is a good thing. Some people are unfortunately caught in the gears of change, but society as a whole benefits. It's not very complicated if you know a bit of economics. You've got your "invisible hand" (that's free markets), you've got your "comparative advantage" (that's free trade), you've got your "perennial gale of creative destruction" (that's competition and new technology), you've got your "can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" (that's attributed to Joseph Stalin, but never mind). The losers in this process deserve sympathy and help, but special pleading must not be allowed to thwart or slow this process.</br></br>We must distinguish, however, between special pleading and legitimate alarm about deeply troubling developments. It is one thing to sacrifice textile workers and auto workers on the altar of progress. It is quite another to start throwing journalists into the flames. And the difference is? Well, it's very different. Completely different. Couldn't be more different, quite frankly, my good madam, because . . . because . . . well, it occurs to me that I'm a journalist. This puts the situation in a new perspective.