MIT Creates Donald Trump Bot Using ‘Deep Learning,’ Irony Abounds

Robby the Robot Photo by Adam Fagen on Flickr/Creative Commons

As if the 2016 election cycle couldn’t get more absurd, the folks at MIT just added a dash of artificial intelligence to a race that has, more times than not, lacked the real stuff.

A postdoctorate student at the school’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) created @DeepDrumpf, inspired by John Oliver’s recent effort to get everyone to start calling Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump by his ancestral name, Drumpf.

I’m what ISIS doesn’t need.

— DeepDrumpf (@DeepDrumpf) March 3, 2016

The Twitter bot uses “deep learning,” a field of artificial intelligence that utilizes systems called “neural networks” to teach computers to find patterns. Inspired by another bot that can replicate the works of Shakespeare, as well as a recent report that reveals Trump’s linguistic patterns resemble that of a fourth-grader, creator Bradley Hayes fed the bot the transcripts of hours of Trump’s victory speeches and debate performances. (Poor thing.)

“Trump’s language tends to be more simplistic, so I figured that, as a modeling problem, he would be the most manageable candidate to study,” Hayes said in a release. “The algorithm essentially learns an underlying structure from all the data it gets, and then comes up with different combinations of the data that reflect the structure that it was taught.”

We have competence. Our people don’t need anybody. I have smart people.

— DeepDrumpf (@DeepDrumpf) March 3, 2016

While occasionally coherent, much like its inspiration, @DeepDrumpf frequently verges on @Horse_ebooks-grade, avant garde musings.

We need somebody that literally has a nuclear wealth, and the enemy tougher on with. And, in my opinion, the new China, believe me.

— DeepDrumpf (@DeepDrumpf) March 4, 2016

We have to make the United States. They can’t do it. Because I’m going to pay for the country.

— DeepDrumpf (@DeepDrumpf) March 3, 2016

You can follow @DeepDrumf, and our collective descent into madness, here.