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Marketplace Tech

AI’s sense of humor is no laughing matter

Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Technology, News

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When asked to complete this joke, “Why did the chatbot cross the road?” OpenAI’s ChatGPT gave this response: “As an AI language model, it doesn’t have physical presence or the ability to cross roads.” A rather disappointing punchline, considering the chatbot’s long list of impressive capabilities. Writers Guild of America members have raised alarms about the use of AI in the scriptwriting process, but when it comes to killing a comedy set, these systems have a ways to go. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Tony Veale, an associate professor at University College Dublin, about what it means for AI to develop its own sense of humor.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Marketplace Morning Reports new Skin in the Game series explores what we can learn about

0:04.6

money and careers from the $300 billion video game industry. Plus, here how an Oakland-based

0:11.0

program helps young people get the skills they need to break into this booming industry.

0:15.9

Listen to Skin in the Game and more from the Marketplace Morning Report wherever you get your

0:20.7

podcasts. Why did the chatbot cross the road? As an AI language model, it doesn't have physical

0:28.9

presence or the ability to cross roads. From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech.

0:34.8

I'm Megan McCarty-Karino.

0:40.9

That rather disappointing punchline was the real response I got from chat GPT when I asked it to

0:48.2

complete my joke. No doubt, the current generation of large language models have a lot of impressive

0:54.9

capabilities. Striking Hollywood writers have raised a alarm about their use in the script writing

1:00.6

process. But when it comes to killing a comedy set, these systems still have a ways to go,

1:07.2

according to Tony Veal. He's an associate professor at University College Dublin who studies

1:13.0

computers and creativity, especially humor. That's one of these fundamental human qualities, isn't it?

1:22.0

We hold that as being special for us as a species, especially when it comes to the contrast

1:29.3

between us and machines. If you understand someone's sense of humor, you understand them.

1:35.3

It's a bona fide for who they are. And mastering humor has sort of been held up as a significant

1:43.2

milestone for AI. Why would this be such an achievement? Well, if you think about the things that

1:49.4

traditionally indicated progress and artificial intelligence, the ability to do planning,

1:55.4

to solve problems, the place-efficated games like Go and Chess. All of these have rules associated

2:04.5

with them and mastery of the game involves mastery of the rules. But something like humor

2:11.2

does exploit the unwritten tacit rules of social convention and so forth, but it's just as much

2:17.6

about rule-breaking as rule-following. And if you think about a machine being humorous,

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