Narrative Science
{{Short description|American natural language generation company}}
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{{Infobox company
| name = Narrative Science
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| logo = Narrative Science logo.png
| logo_size = 250px
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| image_caption = Narrative Science's office in Chicago
| type = Private
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| founder = {{unbulleted list|Larry Birnbaum|Stuart Frankel|Nick Beil|Kris Hammond|}}
| fate = Sold to Salesforce and Integrated into Tableau Software
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| industry = {{unbulleted list|Technology|Software|}}
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| products = {{unbulleted list|Lexio
Quill}}
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| parent = Salesforce
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| foundation = {{Start date and age|2010|01|}}
| location_city = Chicago, Illinois
| location_country = U.S.
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Narrative Science was a natural language generation company based in Chicago, Illinois, that specialized in data storytelling. As of December 17, 2021, Narrative Science was acquired by Salesforce{{Cite web |title=Partner Community |url=https://partners.salesforce.com/pdx/s/pcnews/tableau-closes-acquisition-of-narrative-science-MCZTMUPBB6B5BAXKYSU52KAWFZE4?language=en_US |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=partners.salesforce.com}} and has been integrated into Salesforce's Tableau Software.
History
Narrative Science was founded in 2010 in Evanston, Illinois, after a student project in the Intelligent Information Lab at Northwestern University jump started the NLG technology.{{cite web|title=Stats Monkey|url=http://infolab.northwestern.edu/projects/stats-monkey/|website=Intelligent Information Laboratory|publisher=Northwestern University|accessdate=6 June 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20101116152532/http://infolab.northwestern.edu/projects/stats-monkey/|archivedate=16 November 2010}} The first prototype of the company technology went by the project name StatsMonkey and was developed in the laboratory by Kris Hammond, Larry Birnbaum, Nick Allen and John Templon. StatsMonkey was created to allow stories based in data, specifically baseball stories at the beginning, to be written automatically by StatsMonkey. These baseball stories would include recaps based on game data like players, win probability and game score.{{cite web|title=Program Creates Computer-Generated Sports Stories|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122424166|website=NPR|publisher=NPR|accessdate=6 June 2014}} Narrative Science licensed StatsMonkey and the related intellectual property from Northwestern and began commercial operations in early 2010.{{cite web|last1=Bachman|first1=Justin|title=Are Sportswriters Really Necessary?|url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177037188386.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100503074247/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177037188386.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 3, 2010|website=Business Week|publisher=Business Week|accessdate=6 June 2014}} Afterwards the company decided to change direction, they no longer focused on the journalistic capabilities of their technology and focused on how the same technology could be used in the business world. This led to the development of a Natural Language Generation platform called Quill, which analyzes structured data and automatically generates intelligent narratives for business users who are not data fluent.{{cite web|last1=Woodie|first1=Alex|title=Your Big Data Will Read to you Now|url=http://www.datanami.com/2014/10/28/big-data-will-read-now|website=Datanami|publisher=Tabor Publications|accessdate=10 December 2014}} Narrative Science has several investors, including SAP Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency.{{cite web|url=http://towcenter.org/blog/automated-stories-using-algorithms-to-craft-news-content/|title=Automated Stories: Using Algorithms to Craft News Content|last1=Diakopoulos|first1=Nicholas|website=Tow Center for Digital Journalism|publisher=Columbia Journalism School|accessdate=6 June 2014}} In 2014, the Chicago company raised another $10 million in equity financing, led by customer USAA, for a total of $32 million raised since the company’s inception.{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130910/BLOGS11/130919987/narrative-science-gets-11-5-million-to-write-next-chapter|title=Narrative Science gets $11.5 million to write next chapter|last1=Pletz|first1=John|website=Crain's Chicago Business|publisher=Crain's|accessdate=6 June 2014}} In 2020, Narrative Science launched Data Storytelling for Good, their non-profit branch which provides their products for free to organizations doing good in their community.
On November 15, 2021, Narrative Science announced an agreement to be acquired by Salesforce.{{Cite web |date=2021-11-15 |title=Narrative Science signs agreement to be acquired by Salesforce {{!}} Narrative Science |url=https://narrativescience.com/resource/blog/narrative-science-signs-agreement-to-be-acquired-by-salesforce/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115222610/https://narrativescience.com/resource/blog/narrative-science-signs-agreement-to-be-acquired-by-salesforce/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-11-15 |access-date=2022-11-06 }} The deal closed on December 17, 2021, and Narrative Science was folded into Tableau.{{Cite web |date=2021-12-16 |title=Tableau completes acquisition of Narrative Science |url=https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/news/252511067/Tableau-completes-acquisition-of-Narrative-Science |access-date=2025-01-13 }} In the announcement of the close, Salesforce indicated that Narrative Science's products would no longer be sold on a stand-alone basis.
Recognition
In 2017, Fortune listed Narrative Science as one of the 50 companies leading the artificial intelligence revolution.{{Cite web|url=http://fortune.com/2017/02/23/artificial-intelligence-companies/|title=50 Companies Leading the Artificial Intelligence Revolution|last=Rapp|first=Brian O'Keefe, Nicolas|website=Fortune|access-date=2017-06-17}} In 2015, CNBC named Narrative Science to their Disruptor 50 list.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/12/narrative-science-disruptor-50.html|title=Narrative Science 2015 Disruptor 50|last=staff|first=CNBC com|date=2015-05-12|access-date=2017-06-17}}
Gartner named Narrative Science as one of the “Cool Vendors in Smart Machines” in 2014.{{cite web|last1=Austin|first1=Tom|last2=Linden|first2=Alexander|last3=Rozwell|first3=Carol|last4=Brant|first4=Kenneth|last5=Ghubril|first5=Adib|last6=Anurag|first6=Gupta|title=Cool Vendors in Smart Machines, 2014|url=http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&resId=2707017&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=narrative+science|website=Gartner|publisher=Gartner, Inc.|accessdate=17 June 2014}}{{dead link|date=December 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
In 2013, the company was named to the Red Herring Top 100 for North America,{{cite web|title=2013 Top 100 North America: Winners|url=http://www.redherring.com/events/rhna/2013-rhnawinners/|website=Red Herring|publisher=Red Herring, Inc.|accessdate=17 June 2014}} which highlights promising startups in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Narrative Science won a 2013 Edison Award for Innovative Services in Collaboration and Knowledge Management.{{cite web|title=2013 Edison Award Winners|url=http://www.edisonawards.com/winners2013.php|website=Edison Awards|accessdate=17 June 2014}}{{cite web|title=2013 Edison Awards Announced for Innovative Products and Services|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130426005733/en/2013-Edison-Awards-Announced-for-Innovative-Products-and-Services|website=Business Wire|date=April 26, 2013|accessdate=March 15, 2024}}
In 2018, Narrative Science was part of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers.{{Cite web|url=http://widgets.weforum.org/techpioneers-2018/|title=Introducing the Technology Pioneers Cohort of 2018|website=widgets.weforum.org|language=en|access-date=2018-12-27}}
In 2018, Narrative Science was named Most Innovative Company by Crain's Chicago Business.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagobusiness.com/html-page/821826|title=Meet Chicago's Most innovative companies in 2018.|website=Crain's Chicago Business|language=en|access-date=2018-12-27}}
Competitors
According to Gartner's 2019 "Market Guide for NLG", the main NLG companies are (in alphabetical order): Arria NLG, Automated Insights, AX Semantics, Narrative Science, vPhrase and Yseop.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3942031/market-guide-for-natural-language-generation-platforms|title=Market Guide for Natural Language Generation Platforms|website=Gartner|language=en|access-date=2020-02-07}} Other similar companies in the area of natural language generation include Smartologic, Retresco, United Robots and Linguastat.
Criticism
The company received some early criticism from journalists speculating that Narrative Science was attempting to eliminate the jobs of writers, particularly in sports and finance.{{cite web|last1=Clark|first1=Patrick|title=Can an Algorithm Replace Stock Analysts?|url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-12/can-an-algorithm-replace-stock-analysts|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713222632/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-12/can-an-algorithm-replace-stock-analysts|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2013|website=Business Week|publisher=Business Week|accessdate=6 June 2014}}{{cite web|last1=Levy|first1=Steven|title=Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?|url=https://www.wired.com/2012/04/can-an-algorithm-write-a-better-news-story-than-a-human-reporter/|website=Wired|accessdate=6 June 2014}}{{cite web|last1=Fassler|first1=Joe|title=Can the Computers at Narrative Science Replace Paid Writers?|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/04/can-the-computers-at-narrative-science-replace-paid-writers/255631/|website=The Atlantic|publisher=The Atlantic|accessdate=6 June 2014}}{{cite web|last1=Hamburger|first1=Ellis|title=Robo-journalists are already writing the next generation of news stories|url=https://www.theverge.com/2012/3/20/2888285/narrative-science-slate-news|website=The Verge|accessdate=6 June 2014}} Critics also argue that biases and assumptions in original data sets can lead to reinforced bias in the stories generated by natural language processors,{{cite web|last1=Hefferman|first1=Margaret|title=The post was written by a human|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-post-was-written-by-a-human/|website=CBS News|publisher=CBS|accessdate=6 June 2014}} such as Narrative Science. A CBS article compared artificially generated journalism in the financial sector to the property market bubble, as it leads to “everyone making investments in the same way for the same reasons”. The article claimed that computer-generated narratives have the “potential to amplify biases and assumptions, but at far greater speed and on a far wider scale than anything written by humans.”
An article from the Columbia Journalism School also criticized the limitations of “robo-journalism” software, as “it can’t assess the damage on the ground, can’t interview experts, and can’t discern the relative newsworthiness of various aspects of the story” and therefore, lacks a necessary human element.{{cite web|last1=Howard|first1=Alexander|title=The Art and Science of Data-Driven Journalism|url=http://towcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tow-Center-Data-Driven-Journalism.pdf|website=Tow Center for Digital Journalism|publisher=Columbia Journalism School|accessdate=6 June 2014}}