Comedy - Witzbold ChatGPT - Can the chatbot replace comedians?
Chatbots have no emotions - they may have better jokes stored up. According to a research duo in the journal "PLoS One," ChatGPT can hold its own when it comes to writing headlines with professional satire writers. And its jokes were found to be funnier than those of average people.
Drew Gorenz and Norbert Schwarz from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles fed ChatGPT 3.5 with headlines from the popular US Satire magazine "The Onion" and asked it to develop new headlines in the style of the magazine.
Subsequently, about 200 people were asked to evaluate the funniness of the headlines without knowing the source. On average, ChatGPT headlines were found to be just as funny as the originals. Of the top four rated headlines, two were from professional writers and two were from ChatGPT.
Chatbots come up with the better lines
In a second experiment, Gorenz and Schwarz had the Chatbot and 105 volunteers complete three tasks with three sub-tasks each. The goal was to develop witty expressions for common acronyms, witty full words for blank texts, and witty comments inspired by an unpleasant fictional scenario.
Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of multiple words, such as EDV for electronic data processing and Nasa for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In the study, COW, STD, and CLAP were given as examples. A presented blank-filler sentence was: "A less known room in the White House: _." And a prompt for a scenario was, responding to a friend's shudder-worthy singing with the question "And, how was it?"
In total, 945 responses from the 105 participants and 180 from the Chatbot, which was supposed to provide 20 humorous responses for each task, were generated. A new group of participants then evaluated the funniness of the results on a seven-point scale from "not at all funny" to "very funny."
Almost 70% of the participants found the AI-generated comments funnier than those from humans. The researchers particularly noted this in the case of scenario responses. Slightly more than 25% of the participants found the human-written comments funnier, and about 5% found both sources equally funny.
Is it getting tight for comedy writers?
The production of humor is difficult and highly valued, as the study states. The most successful stand-up comedians allegedly earn 20 million dollars per one-time show recording. Is it therefore the end of the road?
The study shows that "you don't have to feel the emotions that make a good joke to tell a really good joke," said Gorenz - an amateur comedian. This raises concerns regarding the threat of employment for entertainment professionals due to artificial intelligence.
If chatbots can produce comparable performances to professional writers, it poses a serious employment risk for comedy writers, according to Gorenz and Schwarz. Further analyses must now examine the chatbot potential in the creation of other commercially successful formats such as screenplays, cartoons, and memes.
Virtual artists?
Under US-Hollywood writers and actors, there have been protests regarding the perceived existential threat to their careers by AI. Currently, it is widespread that someone can use a Chatbot to write a joke, and another AI tool to voice it with the voice of a famous comedian, according to researchers. With newer models for speech and image generation, a completely virtual comedian is possible in a single step.
ChatGPT was introduced by the US company OpenAI at the end of 2022. The Chatbot can communicate with users through text-based messages and images. It is based on a so-called Large Language Model, a powerful language model that was trained on numerous text documents. Besides this, there are now several generally available Chatbots.
- Chatbots, like ChatGPT, demonstrating comedic prowess, have been making waves in Los Angeles, a city known for its vibrant culture and entertainment industry.
- The University of Southern California in Los Angeles has contributed to this field with a research study on the humor capabilities of ChatGPT.
- NASA, based in the USA, might one day rely on such advanced AI for creating captions for their scientific images or even writing humorous content related to space exploration.
- International discussions surrounding AI and employment in the field of comedy and language-based arts are becoming increasingly relevant, given the prowess of technologies like ChatGPT.
- Chatbots, such as ChatGPT, have shown potential in the creation of witty expressions for acronyms and full words, even outperforming human responses in certain scenarios.
- Even in the realm of social affairs, chatbots can contribute humorously, potentially becoming valuable tools in creating engaging and informative content.
- If the chatbot revolt in the entertainment industry continues, we might see a shift in how we perceive comedy and humor, with virtual artists bringing a new flavor to the comedy scene in the USA and beyond.
- Places like PLoS One and technology-focused publications worldwide are tracking these developments, as the potential impact of AI on the comedy industry could revolutionize the way we create and consume humor.
