* 01 August 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* Michael Reilly
A MAN walks into a bar: "Ouch!" You might not find it funny, but at least you got the joke. That's more than can be said for computers, which, despite radical advances in artificial intelligence, remain notably devoid of a funny bone.
Previously AI researchers have tended not to try mimicking humour, largely because the human sense of humour is so subjective and complex, making it difficult to program.
Now Julia Taylor and Lawrence Mazlack of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio have built a computer program or "bot" that is able to get a specific type of joke - one whose crux is a simple pun. They say this budding cyber wit could lend a sense of humour to physical robots acting as human companions or helpers, which will need to be able to spot jokes if they are to be accepted and not just annoy people. The bot is also teasing apart why some people laugh at a joke, such as the one above, when most just groan.
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