Comments on: Are you ready for computers as comedians?

By: Bri

Bri — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:52:17 +0000

One ringy dingy.@: Graham Rounce. I think your somewhat missing the point. It’s not to be annoying. If anything it’s the reverse. VIKKI will be a reflection of us. An unbelievably detailed reflection, and it will be sensitive to your sensibilities. Big business is aware of the publics dislikes of Robo call centers. It’s not good for their business to turn off people. Call centers are cost effective and so they will proliferate(at humanexpense through job loss [ just couldn't resist!]). comedy would only help make them more human.

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 22:12:57 +0000

… Staffed by Lili Tomlin clone bots

By: Graham Rounce

Graham Rounce — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:06:55 +0000

“fully automated call centers”?? Folowing on from automatic switchboards? Universally hated, yet ubiquitous? Is that the pattern we’re hoping to copy and spread? WHY??

By: Graham Rounce

Graham Rounce — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:04:02 +0000

fully automated call centers

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:20:35 +0000

Don’t forget Ray Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet (RKCP). As you can tell by the name, it’s been around for a while; he wrote the first one in the mid-1980′s.

Here’s how it works:

RKCP reads a selection of poems by a particular author or authors and then creates a “language model” of that author’s work. The language model incorporates computer-based language analysis and mathematical modeling techniques. RKCP can then write original poems from that model. The poems have a similar style to the author(s) originally analyzed, but are completely original new poetry.

Here’s a sample haiku written in the style of Kathleen Frances Wheeler:
Crazy moon child
Hide from your coffin
To spite your doom.

SF writers thought about this idea earlier; see the verse transcriber from J.G. Ballard’s 1971 short story Studio 5, The Stars.

By: eldras

eldras — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 06:45:48 +0000

The aim is to make the multiverse laugh.

By: grahamcaldwell

grahamcaldwell — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:38:39 +0000

I was talking to a robot the other day and the robot said to me ,you humans have nothing to joke about take a look at your planet really is that something to joke about.I then switched it off.

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:15:34 +0000

I am sure they can have tons of pre-entered jokes and then a robot could listen in on any conversation and pick up cues or words that “remind me of a joke”. Maybe these slip into dialog from Siri or other speech to text API’s for the future. But if I am rushing to get directions from my iPhone, the last thing I want is Siri to waste my time with a joke because some human programmed in what they thought was clever. maybe you can set a future computerized assistant to add some % of humor into your dialog, lets say 10% and only for non rush, or non-critical activities just to make the experience more human like…..but I doubt this has much value. I would rather have my computerized assistant looking up a cheaper price on my hotel reservation or find the route to work that avoids the traffic jam, etc. Maybe if the computer tells me a joke, so I can learn it in time for the water-cooler conversation I will have with a human later today…. I need that great joke to get me noticed by the new boss…..”research top funny jokes related to golden parachutes”. or maybe it can read to you the top funny jokes of the day from a human monitored list available online. For now I don’t see computers making up new jokes anymore than I expect them to paint the next Picasso.

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:16:14 +0000

Actually, there is an award-winning chat bot that is programmed with a ton of jokes. Sorry I can’t remember its name. I asked it to tell a joke and it just went on and on and on. After a while I recognized old jokes from Reader’s Digest. The programmer must have spent months putting all those jokes in. Still, you could tell it was a chat bot.

By: GSCOT

GSCOT — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:39:11 +0000

Finally, someone is talking about a Turing Test that might actually MEAN something… Nuances like those noted in this article — around the idea of Humor — are precisely what need to be achieved in order for the Simulation to be convincing. Once that happens, the Singularity will be right around the corner.

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:16:13 +0000

Do you remember “Max Headroom?”

By: Bri

Bri — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:47:01 +0000

Nothing worse than a robot who laughs at his own jokes.

By: Ian Clarke

Ian Clarke — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:02:39 +0000

Humour is a tricky one. Not everyone laughs at the same things, and an ill-timed joke can have the exact opposite affect to that intended. Mastering things like sarcasm may only be achievable after genuine GAI is here.

Hopefully, we’ll develop an empathic GAI – able to pick up on body language and voice tone (and even other signals undetectable to humans). When this happens, not only will human-computer interactions be easier, but we may feel that GAI is the only one who truly understands us.