At a recent AI meetup, we were asked if anyone knew a good AI joke. This seemed like a good opportunity to test if AI can tell jokes.
I started with a simple prompt using OpenAI’s GPT-3 Davinci-2 model: “tell me a joke about artificial intelligence”.
That provided this (not very funny) option:
Why did the robot cross the road?
To get to the other side.
With these AI engines, you get what you give. A little more thought produced something better, but not quite right, “Robin Williams is telling a joke about artificial intelligence to Steve Martin.”
“I was reading about this artificial intelligence thing,” Williams says. “It’s incredible. They say that by 2030, AI will be able to do everything humans can do, but better. They’ll be able to think faster, be more efficient, and never get tired.
“So I was thinking, what if we just put all our eggs in one basket and let the machines take over? Then we could all just sit around and do nothing all day!”
Martin laughs and says, “Yeah, but what would we do for entertainment?”
After a few tries, I ended with a prompt that was more descriptive than before: “Robin Williams and Steve Martin are both sitting on a stool in front of a microphone, telling a very funny story about artificial intelligence.”
Steve Martin:
So, there was this artificial intelligence researcher, who was working on a project to create a super intelligent computer. He was working day and night, and he finally succeeded. The computer was incredibly intelligent, and it could talk and understand everything.
The researcher was so excited that he decided to show it off to the world. He took it to a press conference, and he put it on stage in front of all the reporters.
The computer started talking, and it was so intelligent that it completely fooled everyone. It seemed like it was a real person.
The reporter asked it a question, and the computer answered perfectly. Another reporter asked a question, and the computer answered perfectly again. Everyone was amazed.
But then, one of the reporters asked the computer a question that it couldn’t answer. The computer hesitated for a moment, and then it said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer to that.”
The reporter looked at the researcher and said, “See? Your computer is not as intelligent as you think it is.”
The researcher was shocked. He didn’t know what to say.
But then the computer spoke up again and said, “Actually, I do know the answer to that question. I just didn’t want to tell you because it’s not polite to show off.”
Humor is tough and often there’s more to comedy than just the joke: the delivery, timing, and body language; but several iterations were thought-provoking and a few were laugh out loud funny.
Regardless, the AI-generated attempts are impressive!