Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AI Is Funny - a Generative Joke Model

Posted by timothy on from the funny-is-a-strong-word-for-it dept.

RemyBR writes "Can computers tell a good joke? Is comedy just a matter of statistics or is there something only a human can bring to creating a joke? A joke generator created at the University of Edinburgh (PDF) suggests that AI can be funny. Some AI generated jokes: 'I like my relationships like I like my source, open,' 'I like my coffee like I like my war, cold,' 'I like my boys like I like my sectors, bad.'"

20 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Manually Generated by Dr.+Sheldon+Cooper · · Score: 3, Funny

    I like my slashdot like I like my like like like...

    Loop detected, aborting.

    --
    Bazinga.
    1. Re:Manually Generated by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Funny

      Slashdot would be more like:

      I like my slashdot like I like my cat. Hairy.
      I like my slashdot like I like my cat. Hairy.
      I like my slashdot like I like my cat. Hairy.
      [dup...]

      With the occasional interspersed 3 page rant about something nobody can make sense of

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:Manually Generated by rudy_wayne · · Score: 4, Funny

      Slashdot would be more like:

      I like my slashdot like I like my cat. Hairy.
      I like my slashdot like I like my cat. Hairy.
      I like my slashdot like I like my cat. Hairy.
      [dup...]

      With the occasional interspersed 3 page rant about HOSTS files

      fixed that for you

    3. Re:Manually Generated by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 4, Funny

      I like my coffee like I like my slashdot. Filtered.

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  2. Al? by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Am I the only one who read the headline and thought of Al Gore?

    ob. joke.. I like my coffee like my men - strong and black.

    1. Re:Al? by Dr.+Sheldon+Cooper · · Score: 5, Funny

      Coffee is like a woman.

      Hot and sweet at first, then increasingly cold and bitter.

      --
      Bazinga.
    2. Re:Al? by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like my women like I like my coffee...inanimate.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    3. Re:Al? by jxander · · Score: 5, Funny

      with a spoon in them?

      --
      This signature is false.
    4. Re:Al? by NoImNotNineVolt · · Score: 3, Funny

      I like my women like I like my whiskey -- 12 years old and mixed up with coke.

      --
      Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
    5. Re:Al? by IwantToKeepAnon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Coffee is like a woman.

      Expensive Coffee is like an Expensive Woman .... passed by an Asian Palm Civet ... wait, that didn't quite work.

      --
      "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  3. Cue the barrage... by pspahn · · Score: 3, Funny

    I like my women like I like my sectors, industrial.

    --
    Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
  4. website! by Xicor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    give us a website with access to this joke maker! not just a journal article

  5. "AI-generated" is an overstatement by Typical+Slashdotter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Reading the article, they have a (human-created) statistical model for the specific words people will find funny in this one, exact type of joke. The only thing the "AI" is doing is analyzing word frequencies against this model. I suggest calling these "statistically-generated" jokes, or similar.

  6. This Has Been Done by Toad-san · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, in the movies anyway. Remember the first robot who could NOT get a joke? (Robbie)
    And I think the first wise-cracking robot? (Johnny 5 in "Short Circuit")

    And then of course there was Data .. with mixed results in reference to humor and jokes.

    1. Re:This Has Been Done by bryny · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What about the computer in "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" which was trying to understand humor. One attempt was:

      Why is a fish like a laser beam?
      Neither on of them can whistle.

      It was better at practical jokes, like adding some zeroes on the end of a janitor's paycheck.

  7. Women by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Funny

    I like my women like I like my AI joke generator. Inaccessible to most of the interested geeks.

  8. Re:Ok, now let me try... by N0Man74 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...I like my computer generated joke examples like I like my MSDN how-to articles...terrible?

    I like my computer generated jokes like I like my computer joke generator errors...

    .cpp(31) : error C2337: 'funny_error' : attribute not found

  9. That's what she said by barlevg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The fascinating thing to me was that the funniest jokes it managed to come up with had a definite misogynistic streak. Is it because misogyny is inherently amusing, or because sexist jokes are low-hanging fruit? Link to more coverage of the same story.

  10. The Essence of Humor by tinkerton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Usually people mix up humor and powerful humor. So they think of all the ingredients that make it work. The best example of humor is then the one that makes you laugh more.
    But here's another angle: Just think of humor as having a humor part and a booster that makes you laugh more. The humor part is just the perception switch. It can be pretty mild. But add the naughtiness, the meanness , the embarassment and they provide a boost to the humor.

    Taken that way, the AI examples in the topic article are really touching the essence of humor.

  11. Schubert's 8th by Alsee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like my jokes like I like my symphonies

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.