Strange Intelligence
5 . Mark which course names are real ( R ), and which were made up by artificial intelligence ( AI ). a ) ____ Strange and Modern Biology b ) ____ Paleoethnobotany c ) ____ Devilogy d ) ____ Electronics of Faces e ) ____ Strategies of Alterity f ) ____ Genies and Engineering g ) ____ Stochastic Processes in Population Genetics h ) ____ Psychology of Pictures in Archaeology i ) ____ Readings in Peninsular Literature j ) ____ Melodic Studies in Collegine Mathematics k ) ____ Biologrative Studies l ) ____ Pharmacokinetics m ) ____ Meshfree Methods for Linear and Nonlinear Mechanics
6 . When UC San Diego enters Division I athletics in 2020 , we will join which four sister UC campuses in the Big West Conference ? o UC Berkeley o UC Riverside o UC Davis o UC San Francisco o UC Irvine o UC Santa Barbara o UCLA o UC Santa Cruz o UC Merced
JANELLE SHANE , PHD ’ 14 , has used neural networks , or artificial intelligence , to create names for guinea pigs , knock-knock jokes , even pies and ice cream flavors , with results that are as odd as they are hilarious — consider a scoop of Sticky Crumple on a slice of Cromberry Yaas . Shane , an electrical engineer and research scientist in Boulder , Colo ., has fun with artificial machine learning algorithms in her spare time . “ I ’ m not a neural network researcher , but there ’ s never been a better time to experiment with them ,” she says . She publishes the results on her blog , AI Weirdness , and has a book coming out this fall .
Shane first gained media attention when she had AI generate new paint colors from the Sherwin-Williams catalog . Imagine painting your room Burf Pink , Clear Paste , perhaps a shade of Suffer or Burnt Bit Curry .
Since then , she ’ s had AI riff on recipes ( artichoke gelatin dogs , anyone ?) pickup lines (“ I want to see you to my heart .”) Shane even takes requests — an animal shelter once asked her to name their kittens . How could anyone resist Beep Boop or Whiskeridoo ?
We sent Shane the entire UC San Diego course catalog , from A Glimpse into Acting to Zionism and Post Zionism . She used the neural network textgenrnn to make up more classes , with results spanning from ridiculous to profound :
Imagine the reading list for Deathchip Study . Advanced Smiling Equations and Practicum Geology-Love sound appealing , while Chemistry of Chemistry is either redundant or mind-blowing . What are the prerequisites to The Papering II ? And where does one even begin with The Sun Programpineerstance and Development , or Advanced A World Globbilian Applications ?
“ The algorithm learns by example , so any phrase , word , or even part of a word that it sees repeatedly is likely to become one of its favorites ,” Shane explains . “ It knows that “ istics ” and “ ing ” both go at the end of words . But it doesn ’ t know which words , since it doesn ’ t know what words actually mean . It ’ s hard to tell if it ’ s inventing new college courses , or making fun of them .”
Some classes seemed just as intriguing as the real thing — think you can you tell the difference at left ? Who knows , maybe they ’ ll inspire real coursework someday . Until then , as Shane says , “ If artificial intelligence is the future , then without a strong background in Globbilian Applications , you ’ ll definitely be left behind .”
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