Could a writing robot make novelists obsolete?

机器人作家会让人类小说家失业吗？

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.

目前也许还不能，但未来可说不准。据日本新闻社报道，一篇由人工智能程序和人类作家合作完成的短篇小说在一项文学大赛中通过了第一轮筛选。

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.

日本星新一文学奖是以日本科幻小说家星新一命名的一个奖项，该作家的作品包括《反复无常的机器人》、《来自外太空的问候》等。该奖的评委并不会被事先告知作品是由人类还是人机共创的。

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.

该奖项的独特之处在于它接受那些非人类申请者（人工智能等)的参赛报名。奖项评审委员会接受了由人类和计算机共同完成的参赛作品。

The Asahi Shimbun reports that one of four books co-written by an AI program made it past the first stage of the contest.

日本朝日新闻消息称，4部由人类和人工智能共同完成的参赛作品中，有一部通过了第一轮筛选。

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.

人类作家团队在有人工智能程序的参与下，创作这种半机械小说。一位参与此项目的教授表示，整部小说有80%左右的内容是由人类完成的。

However, the computers did the hard work — actually writing the text.

不过，计算机完成的20%是比较艰巨的那部分——即写出文本。

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.

人类作家构思小说情节和人物细节，然后把现有小说里的单词和短语输入电脑，确保这些信息能够构建一部新的作品。

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."

奖项评审委员会并没有透露哪四部“人机”合作作品在第一阶段胜出。据日本新闻社报道，有部名为《电脑开始写小说的那天》的作品在结尾处说到：“写作让我快乐，这是我之前从未体验过的，我也将继续带着兴奋写作。电脑写作的时代到了。我们电脑终于不用再为人类工作，而是要首先追寻自身的快乐。”

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.

人类小说家们现在还无需担心饭碗问题。虽然这些“人机”合作作品在第一轮筛选中脱颖而出，但绝不会夺冠。

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."

不过，这本半机械小说还是引起了科幻小说家中本聪·哈泽的注意。他说：“这部小说结构的严谨令人震惊。但要想夺冠，它还需要在某些方面有所提高，比如人物描写。”