<p dir="auto">The documentation for numpy.any() states that it</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="auto">Returns single boolean unless axis is not None</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="auto">Calling numpy.any() on an array of strings (dtype=object) returns the first string in the array</p>
<h3 dir="auto">Reproducing code example:</h3>
<div class="highlight highlight-source-python notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" dir="auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="import numpy as np
example_array = np.array(['a', 'b', 'c'], dtype=object)
example_array.any()"><pre class="notranslate"><span class="pl-k">import</span> <span class="pl-s1">numpy</span> <span class="pl-k">as</span> <span class="pl-s1">np</span>
<span class="pl-s1">example_array</span> <span class="pl-c1">=</span> <span class="pl-s1">np</span>.<span class="pl-en">array</span>([<span class="pl-s">'a'</span>, <span class="pl-s">'b'</span>, <span class="pl-s">'c'</span>], <span class="pl-s1">dtype</span><span class="pl-c1">=</span><span class="pl-s1">object</span>)
<span class="pl-s1">example_array</span>.<span class="pl-en">any</span>()</pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Returns 'a' (using all() returns 'c')</p>
<h3 dir="auto">Numpy/Python version information:</h3>
<p dir="auto">1.15.2 3.7.0 (v3.7.0:1bf9cc5093, Jun 27 2018, 04:59:51) [MSC v.1914 64 bit (AMD64)]</p>
<p dir="auto">Currently in 1.9-devel</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="In [45]: type(np.any(np.ones(2,dtype='O')))
Out[45]: int

In [46]: type(np.all(np.ones(2,dtype='O')))
Out[46]: int"><pre class="notranslate"><code class="notranslate">In [45]: type(np.any(np.ones(2,dtype='O')))
Out[45]: int

In [46]: type(np.all(np.ones(2,dtype='O')))
Out[46]: int
</code></pre></div>