Google's A.I. Experiments Combines Experimentation with Fun

Google never ceases to amaze me. Clearly aiming to be the global leader in artificial intelligence, Google unveiled A.I Experiments last week. Currently, you can “explore machine learning by playing with pictures, language, music, code and more” with the following ten experiments:

 

1. AutoDraw 

2. Giorgio Cam 

3. Quick, Draw! 

4. The Infinite Drum Machine 

5. Thing Translator 

6. Bird Sounds 

7. A.I. Duet 

8. Visualizing High-Dimensional Space 

9. What Neural Networks See 

10. Handwriting with a Neural Net

 

For the sake of science (and fun - let’s be honest, it’s a lot of fun to play with A.I. and explore machine learning), I tried a few of their experiments.

 

AutoDraw

I thought I was being sneaky by drawing a kangaroo. As a shape, it seems pretty difficult and, when not using my fancy tablet and just using the track pad on my MacBook Pro, I wasn’t expecting my drawing to truly resemble the great Australian marsupial.

But, as expected from Google, their A.I. accurately figured out that this blob of lines was a kangaroo. 

 

It got all of my easy ones, like a cat, hockey puck, arm, etc. pretty easily.

Visualizing High Dimensional Space

This is, by far, the coolest visualization of machine learning that I have ever seen. Machine learning is not my forte and I’m not going to try to sound like an expert. However, Google’s VHDS shows clusters and self-learning in an easy to understand manner. You can actively see the process of exposure of new data, learning, growing, changing and the further development of the A.I.’s understanding through this experiment. Check out this video on it here:

Quick, Draw!

I could have played this game all morning. So basically, you have 20 seconds to draw an assigned object AND have the A.I. correctly identify what you are drawing. My winning combo of six (and yes, I did this multiple times just to get a perfect score - don’t judge me) included some of my favourite things:

 

A.I. Duet

As a musician, I jumped on this experiment right away and it, by far, was my favourite one. Not only did the A.I. recognize my (what I thought was a tricky use of) melodic minor scales, it followed my syncopated style. Even if you’re not a musician, check out this fantastic video of the A.I. experiment in use.

TL;DR: Best. Monday. Ever. Google + A.I. = Pure Awesomeness.