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livemint.com / 2 months ago
Manu Joseph: Artificial intelligence isn’t funny and seems unable to grasp why that’s so
Like most people, artificial intelligence (AI) is not funny. I check every week. For some time now, I have been asking ChatGPT, and later Claude too, to tell me something funny.
They’re terrible. I have tried providing a setup and context. I gave ChatGPT my thoughts about this column and asked it to frame a humorous observation.
It said: “Why did the AI cross the road? To optimize the chicken.” It is that bad. AI is better at word play than observations, particularly sarcasm, which is the second lowest form of humour, and puns, which are the lowest. Unlike some human bores, AI knows it is not very funny.
After all, it is a connoisseur of humour. Why, I ask AI, are you not funny? The bots offer some reasons. For instance, their lack of “timing.” But this is a glorified aspect of comedy—it belongs to the territory of acting, not writing.
Many who are not funny at all can manage timing once they are told what to say, while every person who is genuinely funny automatically has it. It is just a delivery device. Also, it is not true that AI bots can’t master timing.
I have seen AI videos of infants performing stand-up and they get timing. Another reason that AI tools give is an obvious one: comedy comes from lived experience and they have not lived. As Claude said, it is like, “a technically perfect cover band that is hollow.” It’s flattering itself if it thinks it is technically perfect in comedy.These explanations may not be wrong, but they don’t get to the heart of the matter.
Why AI isn’t funny is also a theory on comedy itself.Humour is a form of human excellence. Like many arts, it is art only when it actually works or is in a special form. And excellence is a minority condition.
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