Name: Can AI tell better jokes than a human? | BBC Global
Uploaded: 2024-08-21T11:34:14.000Z
Duration: 4 min 8 s
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For decades, popular culture has been awash with depictions of funny robots.

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!

But in a real-world context, can AI-created comedy actually be funnier than a real person?

Or are humour and wit inextricably human qualities?  To put this to the test, we're asking a comedian to deliver a stand-up routine written by generative AI.

To begin to understand the present-day capabilities of AI, I sit down with ethics fellow and researcher Marie Aitken from the Alan Turing Institute, who also doubles in stand-up herself.

Something like ChatGPT is only going to be replicating what others have said.

It's not intelligent, it's just mimicking language.

That's what comedy is always about, kind of pushing those boundaries.

There are some things that can't be replicated by AI.

The understanding of context, the understanding of emotions, the understanding of the meaning of words.

I don't think you can really be intentionally funny without understanding what it is that is funny. Do you have any tips or any hacks to get the very best out of a generative AI model?

Don't take what it gives you the first time as the output.

Experiment with asking it to create that in a different style or word it in a different way.

To give us the very best shot at creating a funny comedy routine for stand-up, I solicit the help of comedian Karen Hobbs, who voted one of the funniest comedians at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

What she did, you know, I said, do you like your job?

And she said, oh, you win some, you lose some.

So I'm thinking, oh, she's like a banker or a trader.

No, A&E doctor.  With Karen's help, we'll craft a script written by an AI chatbot that she'll deliver to Comedy Night in a week's time.

What is the secret recipe for making insanely funny comedy?

Just as Murray had predicted, the chatbot's initial responses felt generic.

It feels very much like somebody's read a book on how to do a joke.

As a model which is trained to scrape existing data off the internet, the AI chatbot's responses reveal some pretty entrenched and very outdated gender stereotypes.

Hormones are like, let's make her want pickles and ice cream at 3am and see what happens.

Spoiler alert, what happens is a lot of regret.  After multiple attempts and re-edits, it's time for Karen to deliver her set in front of a live audience.

Maybe the audience will laugh, you know, and if they do laugh, I'll say that bit was mine.

And I'll lie because ChatGPT isn't here to defend itself.

If by booming you mean my best friend is a potted plant named Wilson.

I haven't found that AI has made me think I'm going to be any less successful.

I once gave my wife a glue stick instead of lipstick.

She still isn't talking to me.  It's clear from our test that generative AI models can mimic comedy but don't yet understand the nuances of humour and human experience enough to be truly funny.

To get anything that might vaguely relate to me, a female, you have to specifically say from the perspective of a female comedian because its standard response is very male-centric.

You go out looking for what you want and end up with something you don't need.

I've literally never felt more stupid in my whole life.

 I felt sick, I was shaking, and it reminded me of when I first started comedy and nobody laughed at me.

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Can AI tell better jokes than a human? | BBC Global

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