Harry Potter fans who have already finished reading The Cursed Child and A Journey Through the History of Magic from the past two years have a new chapter in the story of the wizarding boy to tide them over—one brought to us not by J.K. Rowling,but by AI-generated text prediction.

Botnik Studios created the three-page chapter,titled "Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash," after training an algorithmic③algorithmic 英 [,ælɡə'rɪðmɪk] 美 [,ælgɚ'rɪðmɪk]adj. [数] 算法的；规则系统的 ④fan fi ction粉丝小说tool on all seven of the children's fantasy novels. The end result is a tale with a plot that feels soulless and meandering but like any good fan fi ction④, still holds a faint imprint of Rowling's usual lilting whimsical⑤whimsical 英 ['wɪmzɪk(ə)l] 美 ['wɪmzɪkl]adj. 古怪的；异想天开的；反复无常的charm.

The aforementioned⑥aforementioned 英 [əfɔː'menʃənd]美 [ə,fɔr'mɛnʃənd] adj. 上述的；前面提及的Harry Potter excerpt was constructed with the help of multiple writers, who helped construct the sentence through a combination of algorithmic suggestion and authorial discretion.As a result, the chapter reads not like the usual word salad of text prediction, but like unusually inventive fanfi ction. "The castle grounds snarled with a wave of magically magnified wind," it begins. "The sky outside was a great black ceiling, which was full of blood."

There are plenty of Harry Potter fanfics that explore outlandish⑦outlandish 英 [aʊt'lændɪʃ] 美 [aʊt'lændɪʃ]adj. 古怪的；奇异的；异国风格的；偏僻的scenarios⑧scenarios 美 [sɪ'nɛrɪ,o]n. 情节；脚本；情景介绍（scenario的复数）— those featuring a pregnant Voldemort, for instance — and ones of impressive quality. Fanfiction is often used as a stepping stone for writers to get comfortable with language and worldbuilding. The process used by Botnik, which the company refers to as"collaborating with machines," mixes the creativity of dozens of humans with the absurdity⑨absurdity 英 [əb'sɜːdɪtɪ] 美 [əb'sɝdəti]n. 荒谬；谬论；荒谬的言行of machines trying to imitate us, and the result is sometimes, dare I say it, magical.