# Impossibly incredibly beautiful and eerie images created by google recognition software **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960 "2015-06-19T17:55:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/1 "2015-06-19T17:55:23Z")
> **[Inceptionism: Going Deeper into Neural Networks](https://ai.googleblog.com/2015/06/inceptionism-going-deeper-into-neural.html)** I have no words. I would have called these things excellent, whimsical and somewhat spooky works by a talented human artist had I not read the explanation. The basic idea is, they gave the recognition software cues concerning what to look for in an image–regardless of whether any such thing was in the image in the first place–and let it iterate the process several times until… well just look. It even works on pure noise images. It looks like nothing less than genuine dream images. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/2 "2015-06-19T19:00:25Z")
Do neural networks dream of electric sheep? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/3 "2015-06-19T19:03:27Z")
That might explain why people see faces in random stuff… their neural networks are freewheeling. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/4 "2015-06-19T20:27:48Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > That might explain why people see faces in random stuff… their neural networks are freewheeling. Artificial [apophenia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia). Neat. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/5 "2015-06-20T08:40:25Z")
Those things are indeed stunningly beautiful, and insightful. I knew that neural nets sometimes have a tendency to confabulate, i.e. to find things that aren’t really there, but I had no idea that could give rise to such stunning imagery. And to think, those were incredibly simple networks—it’s not wonder that the human brain comes up with all sorts of faeries, demons, UFOs and whatnot: it’s what we’re trained to recognize. Thanks for the link! EDIT: And people should definitely check out the [photo gallery](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPX0SCl7OzWilt9LnuQliattX4OUCj_8EP65_cTVnBmS1jnYgsGQAieQUc1VQWdgQ?key=aVBxWjhwSzg2RjJWLWRuVFBBZEN1d205bUdEMnhB), there’s even more stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/6 "2015-06-20T10:17:40Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > That might explain why people see faces in random stuff… their neural networks are freewheeling. Yes it does, it’s a clear example of confirmation bias at work. Which brings us to the horrid conclusion that the average future cybernetic overlords will be as impervious to logical reasoning as the average fleshie today. Dystopian futures are not what they used to be. ☹ > [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Those things are indeed stunningly beautiful, and insightful. I knew that neural nets sometimes have a tendency to confabulate, i.e. to find things that aren’t really there, but I had no idea that could give rise to such stunning imagery. And to think, those were incredibly simple networks—it’s not wonder that the human brain comes up with all sorts of faeries, demons, UFOs and whatnot: it’s what we’re trained to recognize. Thanks for the link! > > EDIT: And people should definitely check out the [photo gallery](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPX0SCl7OzWilt9LnuQliattX4OUCj_8EP65_cTVnBmS1jnYgsGQAieQUc1VQWdgQ?key=aVBxWjhwSzg2RjJWLWRuVFBBZEN1d205bUdEMnhB), there’s even more stuff there. Well, that gallery just about sent LSD into obsolescence… ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/7 "2015-06-20T14:49:58Z")
Beautiful. Thanks for linking it. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/8 "2015-06-20T17:28:32Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Yes it does, it’s a clear example of confirmation bias at work. > Which brings us to the horrid conclusion that the average future cybernetic overlords will be as impervious to logical reasoning as the average fleshie today. > Dystopian futures are not what they used to be. ☹ > > Well, that gallery just about sent LSD into obsolescence… Cold, man. Cold. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/9 "2015-07-08T22:24:32Z")
OK, so if you feed that thing videos, it gets pretty weird. If you feed it [_Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_](http://gizmodo.com/oh-god-someone-ran-fear-and-loathing-through-googles-n-1716036990), it gets… I don’t think there’s a word for that. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/10 "2015-07-08T22:37:38Z")
There’s an entire new Reddit forum of these images: > **[r/deepdream](https://www.reddit.com/r/deepdream/)** > > r/deepdream: Welcome to /r/DeepDream! This a community that is dedicated to art produced via machine learning algorithms. The most common types of … ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/11 "2015-07-09T09:18:00Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > OK, so if you feed that thing videos, it gets pretty weird. If you feed it [_Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_](http://gizmodo.com/oh-god-someone-ran-fear-and-loathing-through-googles-n-1716036990), it gets… I don’t think there’s a word for that. :eek: Whoa. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impossibly-incredibly-beautiful-and-eerie-images-created-by-google-recognition-software/722960/12 "2015-07-10T01:42:00Z")
Also being discussed (with more example links) in [this nearby thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=761601).