Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic but what if the technology actually creates magic? A group of researchers at the Queen Mary University of London have trained a computer to create magic tricks using puzzle pieces and cards that are reproducible by humans. This isn’t HAL sawing a woman in half, however. The tricks are very basic mathematical problems – reorganizing a puzzle so certain images or parts seem to disappear, for example – but they allow for the simulation of creativity on the computer’s part.
Another trick, a mind-reading card illusion, allows a magician to reorganize a deck and then, using “a few seemingly innocuous pieces of information from the audience,” pull certain cards out of the deck to amaze the audience. Again, this isn’t David Copperfield qualuty stuff. In fact it’s more like Robocop learning to tell a joke by offering up permutations of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” until someone laughs.
From the release:
You can actually the mind-reading trick by downloading the Phoney App for Android.
“Computer intelligence can process much larger amounts of information and run through all the possible outcomes in a way that is almost impossible for a person to do on their own. So while, a member of the audience might have seen a variation on this trick before, the AI can now use psychological and mathematical principles to create lots of different versions and keep audiences guessing,” said co-creator Howard Williams.