· As a slightly rigged example, given the prompt "She pointed her wand and", I get:

She pointed her wand and said, "Greater Nullam (sic) Albus, a man with a beard."

Harry could see a brilliant man in his mid-50s in a maroon silk robe, in a room of softly lit glass and gliding animated candles with hair streaming down his back. It was Muggle science professor, Professor Trelawney.

Professor Trelawney said, "Good evening, Harry Potter. I am pleased to meet you and to see you very well indeed. I have thought of many interesting things to discuss with you today."

"Professor, could you please give me a single book?"

Trelawney nodded curtly. "I would be glad to, but only for a very small

· Given "He struggled with the difficult spell", it came up with a football article. On a second occasion it came up with this, which is sort of magical but definitely not Harry Potter:

He struggled with the difficult spell. "For a few weeks I was in denial, angry, and certainly depressed. I felt like my life was no longer worth living."

So he found a therapist and told her he was a sex addict, something that was not his problem. "Then she said to me: 'Maybe you're right,' " says Gonzales. "And that made me think, OK, this could be my problem. Maybe I'm not broken, and maybe I can learn to be okay without sex."

In August 2012, two years after he had started having sex again, Gonzales woke up in his own bed with his wife next to him. He also had a permanent erection. The next night he had a similar experience. "When you can start having

· Given "Both wizards walked past in their long robes.", it came up with

Both wizards walked past in their long robes. The feather fell from the left sleeve and into the gleaming water of the lake.

"That's enough," Hermione, Harry and Ron said in unison. They turned and walked towards the large tree the stone bridge rested upon.

"Yeah," Ron said, a little amused. "This bridge is a bit much."

"Nothing worth dying for," Harry said, having stopped dead in his tracks as they approached the stone bridge. "C'mon Ron, let's go."

Ron stood there and stared at the bridge.

"Huh," he muttered. "I just realized the rest of us were behind you. I guess we could use your strength. I could do the traveling myself."

· Given the phrase from Tolkien, "Suddenly the Elf gave a cry", it invented part of a book on fairy tales:

Suddenly the Elf gave a cry of frustration, and felt there was nothing he could do to stop the man from chopping the tree, and said, "But my dear young master, you see the young Elk. . . ."

Druid Stewart halted in his work and glared at the Elf with utter fury. "I am more a man of love than of pride," said he, "and I will not have my own lofty feelings crushed by such worthless lumps.

THE ANGELS!

"In the time of my youth, as I recall it, I once stopped to feed the cottage lambs, and I found with them a man and woman.

The man was clearly a bad sort, for he sat listening to the old folk talk and eating his

· Given "The dragon attacked then", on one occasion I got this fragment of Buffy fanfic:

The dragon attacked then ate the village and two of the teenage slayers. The Avatar managed to survive by eating one of the little pets then led the other slayers to kill all of the dragons and protect the villages.

Credits

Written by: David

· On a second occasion it came up with something that seemed a little more original:

The dragon attacked then. Not ever having heard of such an animal before, we spent the entire time staring at it as it roared and thrashed about, causing a mass panic among the passengers who were shocked by what they were witnessing. Most of them could barely stay in their seats with the movements from the beast and barely managed to take photos with their phones. After what seemed like a very long time, it finally came to a rest with a loud thud and the passengers finally gave up, walking to the exit and screaming. The scene was so surreal that I actually forgot for a moment about the fact that we were already in an airplane and about the impending disaster. The passengers boarded a train and continued their journey.

Eventually we reached the Central Railway station, which is more

· Given "I consulted the potions textbook", which is also arguably a bit rigged (how often do potions and textbooks occur together outside of Harry Potter?) it comes up with

I consulted the potions textbook. And here I learned the most astounding fact of all. I had made a potion that restored the mind. It was just that simple. That's right, it worked. It really did. You're getting better. You're really taking things in." Harry lay in his bed and felt a little groggy, but was impressed to see that his eyes were clear, and his mouth was a little dry, but he felt better than he had the previous day. He really had learned a lot. He felt himself getting ready for bed, staring into his window as he thought about the very event that had happened in the past few hours.

It all started with the burning desire to do what he wanted with Ron and Hermione. That made him go to the

· Given "The wizard leaned on his staff", I get

The wizard leaned on his staff and closed his eyes. "But that has not changed. Indeed, the more I have this power, the greater it grows. I never truly felt the full extent of it in the beginning. But today you are stronger, taller, smarter and more powerful. That is a good sign. And because of you, I will see the completion of one of my greatest projects."

The headmaster rose. He walked toward the fire and patted the warlock on the back. "I have waited long enough. You have finally given me an opportunity to become a true student of magic. To study the infinite power I hold, to master it and bestow it onto others. And you have done all this in a single night. It is a privilege I

which starts out not very Potterish but then veers Potterwards.

· Given "The goblin turned the corner", I get

The goblin turned the corner and saw the battle-axe bobbing in the water. His eyes lit up as he stared at the ax and glared at the unicorn. Then the goblin looked back to the pike, quickly raised his wand, and cast the spell: "Search!". "What's the witch's name? Search", yelled the wizard. "Bill Luscombe," the goblin roared. "Vocabulary charms? Go ahead", the wizard yelled back. The goblin bent down, pulled out the memory and said: "Name: Gilderoy Lockhart." The memory was very old. Dumbledore had called it on Dumbledore before and it had been quite a good memory. "Congratulations, dear boy", said the goblin. Then he added "Thank you". Dumbledore said "

· Given "He turned the ring on his finger", I get slightly incoherent Harry Potter gay slash fanfic:

He turned the ring on his finger and it lit up with a red glow, then he started to levitate out of the ring. The ring let out a slight hum when he did so.

A sharp whistling noise could be heard coming from the next room over and the door to that room clicked shut.

Ron smiled and pulled the tall blond man to him, "You know, I've never heard anything like that before, what are you doing?"

Harry smirked and pulled Ron's shirt off, "You're probably wondering why I don't want to go out alone after everything we just did."

"Well," Ron commented, "What were you doing before we met?"

"Well, my people…" Harry said hesitantly, "Some

· Given lines from Tolkien without any proper names in them, it tends to deliver surreal medieval-genre tales:

'Nay! The riders are little more than five leagues distant,' said ilexar. 'I will give you a horse, and go to Ghent to see about our caravan.' They gave him the horse, and ilexar started off. Then a porter of Alcinous' school, who knew the path that led from Knokke to Ghent, said to him: 'Why, of all men I have never seen thee go to Ghent. The full moon is shining, and a queer light is flashing from under the trees on the road that lies by that place. The ponies ride to Ghent in their night-gowns, and set out at the dawn, but they don't come back till night. What chance is there

· Or Legend of Zelda slash fanfic:

Wonder came into the man's eyes, and he laid the weapons hastily before him.

"Y'know, this is my side of things." said Zelda.

"Oh, yeah?" asked Link.

"I'm the doctor. You're the general. You can tell that this one's on edge, but you can't stop her. Plus she's got a gun and two grenades she's using. It's obvious."

"Sorry, I guess I can't. Looks like we've got to make her tell us her side of things or not pass out."

Zelda laughed and pulled Link into a hug.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll make sure she doesn't do anything too crazy."

So if you prompt it with talk about wizards or magical creatures or magical items using contemporary language, GPT-2 gives you, by default, Harry Potter fanfic, something like half the time. Or Legend of Zelda fanfic. Or Buffy fanfic. Anyway, it's emitting lots of text that clearly carries with it copyrights of human authors, under the current very expansive US copyright law designed to privatize fanfic. Maybe the situation with images is better.