> Another good example of an automated attempt to summarize the news that'll never work.
> Algorithms will never solve the summarizing process unless they are teamed up with a rewriting engine that could build coherent paragraphs.
That doesn't sound like never. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if such AI would created within 50-100 years, ie in my lifetime. I think this comment exposes the common false thought-pattern that if something is not viable in the next quarter, then it'll never happen.
Re:TL;DR — Faster News
by MichaelApproved on Thursday November 22, 2012 @06:43AM
(#4818408)
No, you are misreading my statement. Please go back and look for the word "unless". Sentence picking algorithms alone will never solve the problem unless a rewriting engine is added.
Sorry, you are right; I misread the first sentence. I didn't realize that you referred to tldr.io specifically with it.
Re:TL;DR — Faster News
by louischatriot on Thursday November 22, 2012 @09:44AM
(#4818893)
Probable mistype, you mean tldr.it right ?
Just saying that as a cofounder of tldr.io, whose goal is similar to that of SkimThat: provide human written summaries ;)
Re:TL;DR — Faster News
by billirvine on Thursday November 22, 2012 @11:27PM
(#4820970)
What steps are you taking to mitigate spam and bias in summaries created by people?
I know if I wrote a summary of a Microsoft Surface article (I have one), it'd be very different from someone who loves it -- or is even an MS employee.
And spam... big issue there.
(disclaimer - I have your plugin and have tried it, summaries seem way too short.)
Here's why: Let's assume we have the perfect algorithm that knows exactly which sentences to pick for a good summary. You'll still end up with a summary that's horribly out of context and difficult to read.
Try it yourself. Assume your brain is the perfect algorithm and pick the most important sentences for a summary. Then try to read just the sentences that you picked without rewriting it into a coherent paragraph. More than likely, it'll be an out of context confusing block of text.
Algorithms will never solve the summarizing process unless they are teamed up with a rewriting engine that could build coherent paragraphs.