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Could a writing robot make novelists obsolete?
機器人作家會讓人類小說家失業嗎？
It might not happen anytime soon, but then again, it might. In Japan, a short novel co-written by an artificial intelligence program (its co-author is human) made it past the first stage of a literary contest, the Japan News reports.
目前也許還不能，但未來可說不準。據日本新聞社報道，一篇由人工智能程序和人類作家合作完成的短篇小說在一項文學大賽中通過了第一輪篩選。
The Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award is named after Hoshi Shinichi, a Japanese science fiction author whose books include "The Whimsical Robot" and "Greetings from Outer Space." Judges for the prize weren't told which novels were written by humans and which were penned by human-computer teams.
日本星新一文學獎是以日本科幻小說家星新一命名的一個獎項，該作家的作品包括《反復無常的機器人》、《來自外太空的問候》等。該獎的評委并不會被事先告知作品是由人類還是人機共創的。
The award is unique in that it accepts entries from "applicants who are not human beings (AI programs and others)." Novels co-written by humans and computers were submitted to the prize committee.
該獎項的獨特之處在于它接受那些非人類申請者（人工智能等)的參賽報名。獎項評審委員會接受了由人類和計算機共同完成的參賽作品。
The Asahi Shimbun reports that one of four books co-written by an AI program made it past the first stage of the contest.
日本朝日新聞消息稱，4部由人類和人工智能共同完成的參賽作品中，有一部通過了第一輪篩選。
Teams of writers worked with an AI program to create the cyborg novels. The level of human involvement in the novels was about 80%, one of the professors who worked on the project said.
人類作家團隊在有人工智能程序的參與下，創作這種半機械小說。一位參與此項目的教授表示，整部小說有80%左右的內容是由人類完成的。
However, the computers did the hard work — actually writing the text.
不過，計算機完成的20%是比較艱巨的那部分——即寫出文本。
Humans decided the plot and character details of the novel, then entered words and phrases from an existing novel into a computer, which was able to construct a new book using that information.
人類作家構思小說情節和人物細節，然后把現有小說里的單詞和短語輸入電腦，確保這些信息能夠構建一部新的作品。
The prize committee didn't disclose which of the four computer co-written entries advanced in the competition. The Japan News reports that one of the submitted books is titled "The Day a Computer Writes a Novel," which ends with the sentences "I writhed with joy, which I experienced for the first time, and kept writing with excitement. The day a computer wrote a novel. The computer, placing priority on the pursuit of its own joy, stopped working for humans."
獎項評審委員會并沒有透露哪四部“人機”合作作品在第一階段勝出。據日本新聞社報道，有部名為《電腦開始寫小說的那天》的作品在結尾處說到：“寫作讓我快樂，這是我之前從未體驗過的，我也將繼續帶著興奮寫作。電腦寫作的時代到了。我們電腦終于不用再為人類工作，而是要首先追尋自身的快樂。”
Novelists probably shouldn't worry about losing their jobs just yet. Although the novel made it past the first round, it didn't win the award.
人類小說家們現在還無需擔心飯碗問題。雖然這些“人機”合作作品在第一輪篩選中脫穎而出，但絕不會奪冠。
Still, the book impressed science-fiction novelist Satoshi Hase, who said, "I was surprised at the work because it was a well-structured novel. But there are still some problems [to overcome] to win the prize, such as character descriptions."
不過，這本半機械小說還是引起了科幻小說家中本聰·哈澤的注意。他說：“這部小說結構的嚴謹令人震驚。但要想奪冠，它還需要在某些方面有所提高，比如人物描寫。”
