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 Perhaps appealing to a demographic composed of cat lovers tired of traditional cat names like Buttons or Tickles, an animal shelter in Philadelphia is turning to artificial intelligence to name kittens up for adoption.
In collaboration with the city's Morris Animal Refuge, researcher Janelle Shane trained a neural network, or a set of algorithms that recognize patterns, on a list of 8,000 cat names to generate ones for the kittens up for adoption at the shelter.
The first naming attempts resulted in suggestions like Trickles and Hurler, which Shane thought were unsuitable.
Hmm….
Although the second attempt, provided with additional context, generated more fitting results, with the shelter opting for AI-generated names like Pompompur, Starmaker and Whiskeridoo, the system also generated unusual, and potentially ominous, monikers like Tom Glitter, Notion, Constipation, Gangrene, Meatbag, Kill All Humans and Bones of the Master.
Unusual and inappropriate though it may seem, the naming convention appears to be working, as one of the cats, which the AI named Mr. Sinister, has already been adopted.
Currently, the AI-named kittens are available for adoption at the Morris Animal Refuge.
An aside: Am I the only one here dying to see which person makes an instant connection with the cat called Meatbag?
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Re: Using AI to Name Kittens
