Nov 13

A computer program used to grade A level writing in England didn’t like stuff by Winston Churchill or Ernest Hemingway:

The system, which is a proposed way of marking exam papers online, found that Churchill’s rousing call to "fight them on the beaches" was too repetitive, with the text using the word "upon" and "our" too frequently.

His reference to the "might of the German army" lost him marks because the computer assumed that Churchill had intended to say "might have", instead of using "might" as a noun.

Apparently it doesn’t understand metaphor, which seems a big gap for A level writing.  But it isn’t all bad, here I agree with the computer:

Passages from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange were deemed incomprehensible by the computer.

Here here!

One Response to “Automaton Review”

  1. TR Says:

    Want to bet that Aristotle, Augustine and Nietzche would earn a grade less than Obama using TOTUS!.