AI is better than humans at naming craft beers

I often tell people not to worry about robots taking our jobs, but if you’re in the business of branding craft beer, your career might well be nearing its end, thanks to a clever new AI that’s figured out how to do it on its own.

Researcher and electrical engineer Janelle Shane, who’s previously taught AI to conjure up pick-up lines and christen guinea pigs, developed a neural network system to name craft brews by learning from an extensive dataset spanning 90 types of beer culled from BeerAdvocate.com. Here are some of my favorites, which I’d happily consider drinking if I spotted these names on a tap or label:

IPAs

• Bigly Bomb Session IPA
• Binglezard Flack
• Heart Compost
• Test Tha IPA

Strong Pale Ales

• The Great Rebelgion
• Devil’s Chard
• The Oldumbrett’s Ring

Amber Ales

• Fire Pipe
• Ole Blood Whisk
• Frog Trail Ale

Stouts

• Barrel Aged Chocolate Milksmoke
• Shock State
• Avidberry

Do those sound good or what? There’s more where that came from over at Shane’s blog, and you can also hand over your email address for a PDF with 100 more great names.