Botnik has done it again.
The same AI community behind the neural network-generated Harry Potter book that caused at least one person (me) to devolve into tears while reading it out loud released a fake lineup, again generated by a neural network, for real music festival Coachella, and it’s nothing short of glorious (via The Verge). Given the bizarre names of some past Coachella acts—Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Ping Pong Bitches, and Boozoo Bajou come to mind—some of the fake bands listed don’t sound so far from reality. (I’m pretty sure I saw Postwolves open for The National.) Others, like Dinotot, Billions of Mario, and I/Me/Blood, just sound awesome.
According to its website, Botnik is “a community of writers, artists, and developers collaborating with machines to make strange new things.†Said things tend to become viral sensations, as was the case with both Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash and the network-generated abridged script for an episode of Scrubs. Both spread across the web like wildfire; even Scrubs star Zach Braff joined in on the fun, doing a dramatic reading of the script as though it were a JD monologue.
In which I perform the final monologue of a Scrubs script written by a computer. Happy Holidays. pic.twitter.com/49ftogeB05
— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) December 18, 2017
Though it’s hard to pin down exactly what Botnik’s end goal is, here’s hoping they keep on doing what they’re doing; they’re a beacon of light in the sometimes deep, dark Internet, and we’re lucky to have the robots on our side this time around.
Which act are you more excited about: In the Noise of Electric City or Don’t Be Wild Less? Let us know in the comments!
Images: Botnik, Thomas Hawk
More neural network magic!
- A neural network created a bonkers list of D&D spell names.
- A neural network merges dinosaurs with flowers and fruits.
- A neural network writes The Winds of Winter.
