Playing around with Deep Dream: The Google AI that dreams

Image recognition gone wrong (Or right... so terribly right...) !

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH... What happened to my FACE ?!?

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Deep Dream is one of the more interesting AI experiments Google has made. (I made a post back at the very beginning, in March when I signed up, that shows some of the more recent one's)

It uses a specific kind of AI algorithm (called a Convolutional Neural Network) to enhance patterns in images so the chosen "filter" image is better recognised.
It slightly modifies the target image with every iteration so that each output "neuron" (Say, the one for recognizing faces, whiskers, thunder lightning... ) in the Network get a higher Confidence level (AKA., it declares a higher likelihood that the part of the image it's looking at, is what that specific neuron is supposed to recognize).

This produces a Pareidolia-like Effect (Pareidolia being why some people are convinced beyond doubt that some photos of Mars have Canals, Faces, etc...)

The famous Face of Mars often cited as proof of aliens on mars...
Bit of a stretch, if you ask me.

It can be given different "filter" images to set up how the Neuron's recognize different parts of an image, and how it'll be "made better" (Is it me, or are we playing out a miniature "humans don't obey our rules correctly... let's fix them" scenario here ? Am I unwittingly training an AI that will begin "improving" upon us humans to fit it's aesthetic tastes in the future ? Oh dear...)

Here's an example from two of the best Dreamers on Deep Dream Generator, a site that allows you to play around with the original Deep Dream algorithm using different filters and images, and also use a simplified version, or even a more advanced version they've developed called Deep Style:

The top left image is the Target, and the bottom left is the filter. The right image being awesome-sauce !

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this post was made for the second round of @papa-pepper's current Wild and Strange contest, and here is the winning image from Round 1, and the images I submitted created with deep style, deep dream and simple style, the 3 algorithms available on Deep Dream generator:

Winner of Round 1 of the 6th season of the Wild and Strange contest was @dwells. Awesome photo !

And here are my entries (Deep Dream Generator has a limit to how many photos can be processed by a user per hour... or I would have tried more combinations and could have been more "picky" about which to include):

first attempt... don't judge !

You've got to love how nearly every generated image does nothing to the actual steemit logo.
We Are Untouchable !

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source for images:

Wikipedia article on Pareidolia
Deep Dream Generator
Me
@dwells