Pikachu's Basilisk

November 16, 2020 11:31 AM

Matthew Rayfield, a programmer who makes mobile and web-based toys, created 3,000 new Pokémon using open-source AI models. Via Vice
posted by chavenet (11 comments total)

I appreciate the idea, and I am glad he is enthused, but these seem kind of blobby and disturbing to the eye. This computer has not cracked the secret of cute pokes.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:10 PM on November 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

These are absolutely terrible abominations and I love every single one of them.
posted by Lonnrot at 12:16 PM on November 16, 2020 [5 favorites]

Seriously, my eyes have difficulty even conveying them as coherent information to my brain, that is genuinely good monster design, thank you cursed AI.
posted by Lonnrot at 12:20 PM on November 16, 2020 [5 favorites]

Are there shiny versions of these?
posted by mazola at 12:25 PM on November 16, 2020 [5 favorites]

ABOMINATION used PLEASE KILL ME!

It's not very effective...
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:36 PM on November 16, 2020 [6 favorites]

It looked like a few may be viable, but most looked like transporter accidents.
posted by rochrobbb at 12:52 PM on November 16, 2020 [12 favorites]

Pokemon.ai, enhance your Pokemon deck with the power of deep-learning SOTA Pikachu models!
posted by geoff. at 3:26 PM on November 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

"Weird computer output + human curation" seems to be the state of the art for many of these sorts of things, but more advanced adversarial algorithms are already out there that emulate the human portion, like ones that train themselves to make more and more convincing human faces. Making truly convincing Pokemon can't be more difficult than making convincing faces, because as far as I know humans have not evolved to identify and respond to Pokemon.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:49 PM on November 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Speak for yourself, Mr. Encyclopedia
posted by aubilenon at 12:30 AM on November 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Making truly convincing Pokemon can't be more difficult than making convincing faces, because as far as I know humans have not evolved to identify and respond to Pokemon.

Not quite evolution, but neuroscience researchers have identified a ‘pokémon region’ in the brains of adults who played as kids.
posted by soy bean at 9:22 AM on November 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

But.. they don't have faces! Where are their faces?
posted by thoughtful_jester at 4:02 PM on November 18, 2020