In this article, I'll show you how I built a system called AI-Memer that generates memes using the latest AI models. I start with a high-level description of the system components before getting into the background of memes and details of the components. I'll then show you how to generate your own memes using the Google Colab, here. After a brief discussion of results and next steps, you can see some sample memes in the appendix. Oh, and I'll show a newly generated meme at the head of each section.

It's official: The coronavirus quarantine may have well and truly made the concept of a "meme" obsolete. For proof, look no further than "This Meme Does Not Exist," a meme-creation tool created by meme-template website Imgflip. At a glance, it looks like your average random assortment of meme templates. They're being created on the spot by a neural network, an artificial intelligence (AI) that predicts what it thinks a meme might look like. You can let the network generate a random meme for you, or you can preselect your meme from one of many popular templates, from Mocking SpongeBob to the Gatsby toast.

Internet humorists who spend hours honing their craft to create viral memes may want to start worrying about artificial-intelligence technology outdoing them in a matter of seconds. A website called Imgflip, which is used to create customized memes and GIFs, built a meme generator that harnesses machine learning to create new captions at the click of your mouse for 48 of the most popular meme templates. Called This Meme Does Not Exist, this meme generator has gotten renewed attention thanks to a viral tweet from writer and artist K. Thor Jensen posted Tuesday. The meme generator was created in 2019, but just as a slew of similar sites popped up generating fake faces, fake cats, fake anime characters, fake startups, and even fake Airbnb listings. This Meme Does Not Exist, as well as the other sites, make these AI-based creations using artificial neural networks that train a computer to learn from a slew of data.

Distracted Boyfriend casting his gaze toward carbs. Leonardo DiCaprio suggesting it's time to have a dick. Truly none of these things make sense. Yet as people worldwide are fully in their second month of coronavirus quarantine (or should be), they're all oddly hilarious notions. Perhaps it's stir-craziness, but the images burped out by the AI meme generator--a recently added feature of the site Imgflip--make a random kind of sense.

Why are these AI-generated memes better than any a human being could make? Internet users have used the Imgflip meme generator to create their own memes for the better part of a decade. Now, the site is generating its own memes, using the help of artificial intelligence. Harkening back to AI-generated feet pictures and AI-generated faces, the site This Meme Does Not Exist matches captions with a selection of popular meme formats. Its creator, Imgflip founder Dylan Wenlau, used his machine learning platform Tensorflow and Keras to generate the captions.