SOME names have legendary status in the business of branding. Viagra and BlackBerry roll off the tongue and capture something about the products they represent. But could the naming process, which relies so heavily on human creativity, ever be carried out by a machine?
Judging by the results from the artificial intelligence system developed by a team at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trentino, Italy, it can. They studied 1000 brand and company names in a bid to break down naming into a step-by-step process. Then they wrote software that they claim mimics that process.
鈥淎 name doesn鈥檛 come out of the blue,鈥� says team member . 鈥淭here is a technique, and when there is a technique it is possible to think computationally.鈥�
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Their process starts with a series of words that describe the product to be named, such as 鈥渞estaurant鈥�, 鈥淚talian food鈥� and 鈥渃osy鈥�. Then the system retrieves related words from an open-source database called that contains information on the meaning of words. In the case of 鈥渞estaurant鈥� and 鈥淚talian鈥�, ConceptNet suggests 鈥渆at鈥�, 鈥減asta鈥� and 鈥減izza鈥�.
To form a name, the branding software analyses the words it has retrieved and mashes them together to produce a combined word that retains some of the sound of one of the original words. In the case of the Italian eatery, it offered 鈥淧astarant鈥� and 鈥淓atalian鈥�. The latter turns out to be the name of a in Los Angeles.
The system had other successes, such as 鈥淔ragrinse鈥� for a shampoo and 鈥淐alculight鈥� for a lightweight computer. For 快猫短视频, it suggested we rebrand as Scientslick or Experifactal, among others. But it also produced some duds. Asked to name a chocolate bar, it combined 鈥渟weet鈥� and 鈥渆at鈥� to give 鈥淪weat鈥�.
聯In the case of renaming 快猫短视频, the AI suggested Scientslick or Experifactal聪
That is not a problem, says Strapparava, who worked on the project with his colleague G枚zde 脰zbal. The system is not intended as a replacement for human namers, but as a tool that could be used to brainstorm for ideas. Strapparava and 脰zbal plan on adding other naming techniques to the system, such as introducing the ability to use rhymes, as in 鈥淓tch-a-Sketch鈥�. They also want to make the system available to the public so that copywriters and others can provide feedback.
Mat Heinl, chief creative officer at in London, says he is not sure whether the system will produce great names, but he is excited about the scope for automation in the creative industry 鈥� provided humans remain at the helm.
鈥淎 lot of creative work is unoriginal and repetitious,鈥� says Heinl. 鈥淢achines can do that well. Theoretically this would be cheaper, quicker, more coherent and easier to manage. However, it should be creative people who define the direction.鈥�
The work will be presented in July at a meeting of the in Jeju, South Korea.
