Newsblaster is an attempt to use natural language processing to produce summaries of news reports, and it has DARPA funding behind it. It compares stories from the following sources, and generates a summary of the news story.

Current [Newsblaster] sources: Yahoo, ABCNews, CNN, Reuters, LA Times, CBS News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Virtual New York, Washington Post, Wired, FOX News, NY Post, USA Today, Science Magazine, BBC News, Nature Magazine and Lycos.

I have more than a few doubts about the AI algorithms being used, and how current journo practices of just running with the wire report might affect them. Regardless, the same old problems of machine translations and summarization appear to be alive and well -- check out the last sentence of this summary, for instance:

Lawmakers Slam Withholding of Homeland Security Information, Threaten Cuts

Congress criticized the Bush administration's tight rein on information Thursday, with both Republicans and Democrats questioning the president's reluctance to share. Politics: Congress wants updates on homeland security. Two senators asked President Bush on Friday for a meeting to discuss Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge's refusal to testify before Congress. President Bush surrounded himself with airborne soldiers and their cheering families today as he tried to pressure Congress to pass his huge defense budget quickly and in its entirety. Lawmakers delivered a bipartisan tongue - lashing to the White House budget chief on Thursday and threatened to withhold funds unless the Bush administration provides more details about anti - terrorism efforts at home. Mir Aimal Kasi did not use a disguise or grow a beard to circumvent border security and enter the United States in late 1992.

Huh? Well, at least editors should still have some job security if this tool goes into operation in news rooms...

5:10:41 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    

Scoble-man, didn't you know that there are many levels of being a Frontier Newbie? I'm still working my own way thru these... ;-)

A Radio and Frontier Newbie. Oliver Wrede wrote "the Golden Rules for Newbies to Radio and Frontier." Heck, I've been using both for a year and I'm +still+ a newbie.

12:36:28 AM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [blinked via Scobleizer Radio Weblog]