Presented at the Digital Humanities Congress (7 September 2018), organised by the University of Sheffield's Digital Humanities Institute. Provides an introduction to natural language generation, as well as to the notion of the 'hermeneutic contract'. Reviews the results of a large-scale online reader-response questionnaire wherein participants were asked to attribute authorship to a computer-generated news article.

1. Natural Language Generation:
Negotiating Text Production
In Our Digital Humanity
Leah Henrickson
School of the Arts, English and Drama
@leahhenrickson

2. @leahhenrickson
Natural language generation (NLG)
is the process wherein
computers produce textual output in
readable human languages.

3. Automated Insights, 'Natural Language Generation in Your Daily Life', Medium (5 October 2017)
<https://medium.com/@AutomatedInsights/natural-language-generation-in-your-daily-life-53c90c54bef0> [accessed 28 August 2018]
@leahhenrickson

4. Racter [William Chamberlain and Tom Etter], The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed (1984)
@leahhenrickson

5. Zach Whalen, 'The several houses of Brian, Spencer, Liam, Victoria, Brayden, Vincent, and Alex', GitHub (17 December 2017)
<https://github.com/zachwhalen/nngm17> [accessed 28 August 2018]
@leahhenrickson

6. @MagicRealismBot, Twitter <twitter.com/magicrealismbot> [accessed 28 August 2018, 11:43]
@leahhenrickson

7. @leahhenrickson
There has not yet been any
systematic analysis of
computer-generated text reception.
We do not know where these texts fit
within our current conceptions of
authorship and readership.

8. This the hermeneutic contract.
That reading is accepted as an act
wherein the reader receives an
interesting and understandable text
written by an author motivated by
intent-directed agency.
@leahhenrickson

9. Computer-generated texts
bring the hermeneutic contract
into question.
@leahhenrickson

10. Immersive Automation, Valtteri <https://www.vaalibotti.fi> [accessed 1 October 2017]
@leahhenrickson

12. Authorship is an identity,

13. Authorship is an identity,
with particular connotations,

14. Authorship is an identity,
with particular connotations,
engaging in particular activities

15. Authorship is an identity,
with particular connotations,
engaging in particular activities
that result in particular outputs.

16. Why does this matter?
Ours is a culture obsessed with
authorship.
Authorship implies accountability,
agency, creativity, and intelligence.
@leahhenrickson

17. Option Number of
Participants
It is not possible to
assign authorship
143 (28.6%)
Valtteri 179 (35.8%)
John Smith 7 (1.4%)
Immersive Automation 90 (18%)
Those who fund
Immersive Automation
9 (1.8%)
Other 72 (14.4%)

18. Thank you.
Leah Henrickson
l.r.henrickson@lboro.ac.uk
@leahhenrickson
7 September 2018