August 20, 2007

Researchers design humorous "bot." University of Cincinnati researchers Julia Taylor and Larry Mazlack recently unveiled a "bot” — more accurately a software program — that recognizes jokes. They reported the development at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, Canada. All bad jokes aside, their research represents a step forward in computers reaching the capability of a human mind.
  • That's really interesting, and certainly significant, but it's worth noting that the program only recognizes one kind of joke: the pun.
  • This is a really, really good post. Does the bot recognise sarcasm?
  • But how does it smell?
  • Also, as far as only recognizing one kind of joke, I'm assuming that they'll build from there. Humor is a subtle thing, with the pun certainly being the least subtle type thereof. Seems like the logical place to start, just as a child might.
  • I have been informed by my robot that this interesting post is in fact hilarious. Considering that I know several people with no detectable sense of humor whatsoever, I'd say machines are way ahead of humans already.
  • 0110100001100001001000000110100001100001
  • HA!
  • I imagine sarcasm will be real easy to program. *rolls eyes dramatically*
  • Having just got back from a busy long weekend at the Edingburgh Fringe, I can honestly say that I bet this robot would be funnier than many comedians.
  • My computer crashed the other day and it took some time for it to come out of it's coma; it used to chuckle at the dry folly of life, but now it spasms uncontrollably at the mere mention of Carrot Top. Should I be concerned? Oh: and the worst part about the whole thing? The other computer was drunk at the time of the accident.