{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "New My Little Ponies, designed by neural network", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/164740347293/", "html": "<p><a href=\"http://lewisandquark.tumblr.com/post/164560090962/new-my-little-ponies-designed-by-neural-network\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">lewisandquark</a>:</p><blockquote>\n<p>The Kingdom of Equestria is inhabited by thousands of colorful, magical ponies, whose life cycle, socioeconomics, and biomechanics are best not investigated too closely. Their names are usually something like\u00a0\u201cRainbow Dash\u201d or\u00a0\u201cDiamond Tiara\u201d or (my favorite because she\u2019s totally a grad student pony):\u00a0\u2018Twilight Sparkle\u201d.</p>\n<p>Often the plot calls for crowd scenes (usually involving ponies in great peril), and I worry that some day the creators of My Little Pony will run out of names. In the spirit of being helpful, I decided to put a computer to the task of generating lots of new ponies.</p>\n<p>I used a program called a character-level recurrent neural network (<a href=\"http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/\" target=\"_blank\">char-rnn</a>), which looks at examples of text (<a href=\"http://lewisandquark.tumblr.com/post/147834883707/pokemon-generated-by-neural-network\" target=\"_blank\">Pokemon</a>, or <a href=\"http://lewisandquark.tumblr.com/post/164291045392/harry-potter-and-the-word-level-recurrent-neural\" target=\"_blank\">Harry Potter fan fiction</a>, or even <a href=\"http://lewisandquark.tumblr.com/post/161854386267/neural-networks-can-name-guinea-pigs\" target=\"_blank\">guinea pig names</a>) and learns to imitate them. I gave the neural network more than 1,500 names from <a href=\"http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Characters\" target=\"_blank\">My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki</a>, and let it start learning.</p>\n<p>Result: partial success.</p>\n<p>It did come up with some pretty plausible-sounding ponies, certainly not as weird as some of the ponies that have already appeared on the show (such as Groucho Mark and Button Mash and Buzzard Hooffield).</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"562\" data-orig-height=\"600\" class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_ov6bdvYT5n1rl9zu7_540_0d48f8d87a44.png\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"562\" data-orig-height=\"600\"/></figure><blockquote><p>Star Blueberry<br/>Sprinkle Cherry Bolt<br/>Berry Spy<br/>Sweet Glints<br/>Cheer Belle<br/>Sunferry<br/>Sunshine Star<br/>Sweet Bolt<br/>Cherry Curls<br/>Mint Flower<br/>Bright Seas<br/>Flight Star<br/>Plum Flower<br/>Sweet Suns<br/>Brash Clouds<br/>Cheery Breath<br/>Cloudy Daze<br/>Big Blue<br/>Brass Flare<br/>Blue Chile<br/>Coco Mane<br/>Neon Brush<br/>Strawberry Sun<br/>Sugar Top<br/>Cinnamon Mark<br/>Glowberry<br/>Amethyst Mist</p></blockquote>\n<p>The neural network also came up with some seriously tough-sounding ponies, ones that you would definitely want on your side when fighting giant killer cupcakes, or whatever the peril is this week.</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"535\" data-orig-height=\"600\" class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_ov6bgmayoC1rl9zu7_540_585bfa2d3b0e.png\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"535\" data-orig-height=\"600\"/></figure><blockquote><p>Cold Sting<br/>Scarline<br/>Shoot Bolt<br/>Sunder Bright<br/>Dark Role<br/>Sob Dancer<br/>Sunsrot<br/>Masked Rock<br/>Roar<br/>Starlich<br/>Command Pony<br/>Deader Pony<br/>Flint Sting<br/>Steel Roller<br/>Dark Candy<br/>Scarphore<br/>Creep Well<br/>Prince Still<br/>Stare Rust<br/>Crack Colder<br/>Sanderlash<br/>Bitter Star</p></blockquote>\n<p>But the neural network\u2019s results weren\u2019t all successful. It also came up with some ponies that probably wouldn\u2019t be on the A-team.</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"611\" data-orig-height=\"600\" class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_ov711he6Lt1rl9zu7_540_cf8074f61a66.png\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"611\" data-orig-height=\"600\"/></figure><blockquote><p>Dunder Dort<br/>Tardy Pony<br/>Flunderlane<br/>Flueberry Sherry<br/>Marina Doof<br/>Want Cone<br/>Starf Dad<br/>Star Star<br/>Flurtershy<br/>Starly Star<br/>Mr. Atple<br/>Pony Pony<br/>Packy Pack<br/>Pinky Swoll<br/>Apple Apple<br/>Dim McColt<br/>Free Sing Fail<br/>Poney Hoof<br/>Tasting Spar<br/>Dirky Flithers<br/>Arple Robbler<br/>Chest Star<br/>Barp Moon<br/>Mr. Wander</p></blockquote>\n<p>It also invented some ponies that are just plain weird.</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"477\" data-orig-height=\"600\" class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_ov6bcvnOBA1rl9zu7_540_568a568a783e.png\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"477\" data-orig-height=\"600\"/></figure><blockquote><p>Lilie Lice Billy Boon<br/>Wootson<br/>Mice Full<br/>Fish Crest Suns Sun<br/>Ramen Breek<br/>Smarky Hondsarors<br/>Blither Bon Persy<br/>Belly Pony<br/>String Heart<br/>Swinkleshine<br/>Flint Cream<br/>Star Sandlime<br/>Rocky Scooppony<br/>Piemonk<br/>String Punch<br/>Apple Stork<br/>Bunny Maze<br/>Lilac Ruster<br/>Winker-Moon<br/>Charmy Vine<br/>Swan Break<br/>Wags Pine<br/>Pearlicket<br/>Nandy Quark<br/>Firey Up<br/>Tracklewock Packin<br/>Flustershovel Aoetel Pakeecuand<br/>Tapshine Sugar<br/>Cloudsdalou<br/>Sandy Apple<br/>Mitten Splash<br/>Silvermice<br/>Butter Flash<br/>Agar Swirl<br/>Cheese Breeze</p></blockquote>\n<p>And a list of ponies you might want to avoid:</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"549\" data-orig-height=\"600\" class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_ov6bfbtE6a1rl9zu7_540_5db35117cdaf.png\" alt=\"image\" data-orig-width=\"549\" data-orig-height=\"600\"/></figure><blockquote><p>Clotter<br/>Raspberry Turd<br/>Blueberry Pants<br/>Benny Sweat<br/>Parpy Stink<br/>Blue Cuss<br/>Groan<br/>Rear Pony<br/>Lace Crunk<br/>Rade Slime<br/>Derdy Star<br/>Swill Brick<br/>Colona<br/>Pocky Mire<br/>Hoofed Snarch<br/>Apple Ronch<br/>Trowel Pony<br/>Smanky Hank<br/>Princess Sweat<br/></p></blockquote>\n<p><i>Pony pictures created using <a href=\"https://generalzoi.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Creator-Full-Version-254295904\" target=\"_blank\">General Zoi\u2019s Pony Creator</a></i></p>\n<p>The neural network also generated some ponies that would <i>definitely</i>\u00a0not appear in a kid\u2019s TV show - I\u2019m not sure where it learned some of those words. If you want the unfit-to-print ponies, <a href=\"https://janelleshane.activehosted.com/f/11\" target=\"_blank\">fill in your email here and I\u2019ll send them to you</a>.<br/></p>\n<p>You can now get the pony Blue Cuss on a t-shirt! <a href=\"https://tspr.ng/c/blue-cuss\" target=\"_blank\">Head on over here</a>.</p>\n<figure data-orig-width=\"1080\" data-orig-height=\"679\" class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"/media/tumblr_inline_ovb6llnDus1rl9zu7_540_a7dd567ae830.png\" data-orig-width=\"1080\" data-orig-height=\"679\"/></figure></blockquote>", "thumbnail_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/media/tumblr_inline_ov6bdvYT5n1rl9zu7_540_0d48f8d87a44.png", "thumbnail_width": 540, "thumbnail_height": 577}