Google’s AI Game Can Guess What You Are Drawing

Google’s new slew of AI tools includes a kind of game called “Quick, Draw!” that can guess what you’re doodling. It’s impressive just how good the tool is—though some of its misses would be obvious to the human eye.

“This is a game built with machine learning,” says a tutorial site. “You draw, and a neural network tries to guess what you’re drawing. Of course, it doesn’t always work. But the more you play with it, the more it will learn. It’s just one example of how you can use machine learning in fun ways.”

The service gives users a written cue (like “knee” or “oven” and 20 seconds to draw the object. In some cases, it guessed faster than this reporter could even finish doodling (like “power outlet,” which it guessed before the sockets could be drawn); in others, valiant attempts at things like “sandwich” went unrecognized.