Dan Hon recently set out out to do something rather fun with artificial intelligence.
The director of content at Code for America took a bunch of existing British placenamesand, with a method that goes overour heads somewhat, managed to train an AI to generate some new ones.
His results are so fantasticthat they sound like any number of drizzly English villages you may have driven through looking for a half hidden wedding venue.
Check out Dan's working out, andall the incrediblyconvincing sounding British placenamesbelow.
I trained an A.I. to generate British placenames
The results were predictable.
(Inspired in part by Janelle Shanes New paint colors invented by neural network. Tom Taylor did similar work in 2016, generating English village names.)
Method:
1.Find a list of British placenames. Heres one you can download as a CSV. You just need the names, so strip out all the other columns. To save some time, you can use the one I prepared earlier.
2.Pick a multi-layer recurrent neural network to use. The first time I did this, Karpathys char-rnn was all the rage, this time I used jcjohnsons torch-rnn.
3.If youre using a Mac, dont bother trying to get OpenCL GPU support working. I wasted 3 hours. Just use crisbals CPU-based docker image. (If you know what youre doing, then youre already comfortable doing this all on AWS or youve got an nVidia GPU).
4.Follow jcjohnsons instructions in the readme (pre-process your data, etc.)
5. Go and have a cup of tea while you train your model.
6. Mess around with the temperature when you sample based on your model.
7.Take a look at some of my favourite neural network generated British placenames (and if youd like more, heres 50,000 characters worth):
root@themachine:~/torch-rnn# th sample.lua -checkpoint cv/checkpoint_8450.t7 -length 1000 -gpu -1
Ospley
Stoke Carrston
Elfordbion
Hevermilley
Ell
Elles Chorels
Ellers Green
Heaton on Westom
Hadford Hill
Hambate Combe
Manory Somerstow
Buchraston-on-Ter-Sey
Brotters Common
Normannegg
Twettle Row
North Hill Row St Marne
Torston-le Taney
North Praftton
Tontons Coss
Topswick End
Brumlington
Boll of Binclestead
Farton Green Pear End
Wadworth Mayshyns Wiwton
Wader Bridge
Weston Parpenham
Oarden of Land Park
Batchington Crunnerton
Larebridge Heath Brook
Capton Briins Forehouint Eftte Green
Waryburn Torner Midlwood
Wasts Halkstack
Maggington Common
Stach Helland Neston
Stoke Hills
Sutsy Compton
Stoke of Inch
Upper Somefield
Rastan-on-croan
Wadway Dynd-Rott End
Wattings Ward
Harhester Willey
Marrock
Saxford
Salton Southens Hovers
Salt, Earth
Stamorn Vale
Stouth Wiesleyt Bhampton
Upper Brynton
Kniness Gartes
Webury Hill
Eastbridge Brook
Wallow Manworth
East Holmsley Anby
Hallaid or Humme
Galling Compton
Hampers Hill
Hangyds Hain
Wasland Commone
Wantham Mount on-by Langham
Kinindworthorpe Marmile
Dompton Ole
Dimmer Common
Keston Upper Rhington
Towerhaite Mank
Cockhanford Vales
Porcoft Green
Newtons St Pethen
Silmers Hill
Crocken-ons Clow
Prrighstock Tabergate
Crisklethes Chorn
Cross Gorburster
Storton of Brook
Cartswood Csters
New Amherston
Wascood Woots Corner
West Dottisley
Westovel (Blingwars
Sandeside Backton
Waledon of Bandsead
Rald Bockan-Sea
Boleland Brase
Stoop Heath
See the article here:
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