Report 1133

Elon Musk is terrified that artificial intelligence might spell the end of humanity.

Thankfully, it looks like we're not quite there yet. Colorado-based research scientist Janelle Shane has trained a neural network (a type of machine-learning algorithm) to write its own Christmas carols, and the results are...interesting.

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Shane trained the algorithm to imitate a set of 240 popular Christmas carols aggregated by the Times of London. The AI trained itself by continuously attempting to write carols, checking their accuracy against the carols in the dataset, and modifying its process accordingly.

Here's an excerpt from one, which Shane posted on her blog:

The story of the chimney see

Santa baby, and blood and joyous so world and joy and good will to see

Santa baby bore sweet Jesus Christ

Fa la la la la la la, la la la la la la la la.

King of toys and hippopotamuses [sic] full of the light of that stood at the dear Son of Santa Claus

He was born in a wonderful christmas tree

Run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolph, run, run Rudolf the new born King.

As you can see, the resulting songs look a heck of a lot like Christmas carols, but they don't make a ton of sense.

It's actually somewhat impressive how well Shane's AI imitates the structure and syntax of a Christmas song. But it's clearly got a long way to go.

AI alarmists may want to holster their pitchforks for now. The robot overlords may have conquered strategy games, but when it comes to Christmas spirit, humans are still on top.