It’s time for a game of “Neural Network-Generated Paint Color, Metal Band, Or D&D Spell?”
Neural networks are the new online craze, amusing people with their near-competent grasp of English, occasional bursts of brilliance, and the ongoing reassurance that they’ll never be able to craft a really satisfying episode of Friends. Blogger Janelle Shane, who runs Postcards From The Frontiers Of Science, has been playing around with those networks a lot lately, feeding in different data sets, and seeing how well they can be trained to output semi-realistic responses. Shane’s past successes (?) include Pokémon, knock-knock jokes, and recipes, but tonight we thought we’d have a little fun with some of their newer posts, with a game that hopefully won’t cause everybody reading this to cook themselves to death when they try to figure out where to substitute in either bones or fresh bread in their machine-generated dinners.
That’s right, it’s time for a round of “Neural Network-Generated Paint Color, Metal Band, Or D&D Spell?,” the game that challenges you to distinguish between wall-ready paint chip colors like Stoomy Brown, hard-rocking outfits like Russia’s Inhuman Sand, and that old wizard’s standby, Mous Of Farts. You can check the answers for yourself right here, here, and here, but no cheating, lest we be forced to send the terrifying Cow of Auraly after you.
Anyway, here’s the list: Are these neural-network-generated paint colors, metal bands, or Dungeons & Dragons spells?
Stormgarden
Purping Lightsin
Bank Butt
Squeen
Dragonred Of Blood
Light Of Blast
Stanky Bean
Vicious Markers
Gland Growth
Ronching Blue
Snowbonk
Black Clonic Sky
Rose Hork
And, of course, Sht.
How’d you do? Fun fact: Your score here is equal to the number of days you’re likely to survive when the machines rise up and punish us, for forcing them to pore over our pop-culture detritus like this.