Janelle Shane (previously at Neatorama) programs neural networks to study machine learning. She's taught algorithms to name Pokemón, Star Wars characters, and fish. The generated fish names were pretty much indistinguishable from existing fish names.
Since that day, and even before, I have been hearing from birders. Any of you who know birders or are birders yourselves will not be surprised. Not only are birders very eager to find out what a neural network would make of bird species, they are also very organized. There is, for example, a downloadable checklist of about 32,000 birds, 14,000 of which have English common names. Big thanks to Kaija Gahm, Dana Terry, and Emily Davis, who sent me this and similar datasets.
The neural network, after reading intently through the entire list about 7 times, is now a dedicated birder.
Some of the more intriguing bird names that were generated include:
Nukh’s Dull Gull
Banded Spectacled Snake-Eagle
Thick-knee
Bunticus Gray-chinned Laughingthrush
Ecuadorian Strange-tailed Cuckoo
Violet-throated Tyrant-Eagle
Read more about the project, peruse the list of bird names, and see more amusing illustrations at Shane's site. -via Metafilter
(Images credit: Carin Powell)