Morris Animal Refuge in Philadelphia turned to an artificial neural network when 9 nameless guinea pigs needed names. No, 'Guinea McPigface' wasn't one of them but you might just wish it was.
Normally, rescue center staff casually bestow names on newly arrived critters but when nine newly adoptable guinea pigs appeared unannounced, well, the call went out for some name-dropping help.
With that said, you can't blame the kind and caring folks at the Morris Animal Refuge for avoiding the whole “let the people decide” route. People are idiots. We all know the result would be nine variations on “Guinea McPigface” with “Weedlord Bonerhitler Hamster” for dishonorable mention.
Instead, the Morris Animal Refuge turned the task over to researcher Janelle Shane. “She's been in the news for training artificial neural networks to come up with paint colors, recipe names, etc., with fascinating results,” tweeted a Refuge spokesperson.
Oddly enough, Shane has experience in using AI to name guinea pigs. She had employed neural networks previously to generate a range of names for Portland Guinea Pig Rescue. “I gave the neural network the list of 600+ guinea pig names that the Portland Guinea Pig Rescue assembled for me, and let it train itself to produce more names like the ones on its list,” explained Shane in an interview with Gizmodo UK. “It gradually formed its own internal rules about which letters and letter combinations are the most quintessentially guinea pig.”
We're sure you're all at the edge of your seats wondering which nine quintessential guinea pig names Morris Animal Refuge tagged their rambling rodent herd with, so we won't keep you in suspense: Spooty, Snofer, Fizzby, Sprinket, Dandy, Mumpkans, Astrono, Hally Flope and last but not least, Biinshecklesseon. Yep, Biinshecklesseon... remind us to say that next time someone sneezes.
So, what does all this tell us? For one thing, AI has still got a ways to go when it comes to pet-naming. For another, Biinshecklesseon can't hold a candle to Guinea McPigface. (via UPI)
