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An AI walks into a bar... Can artificial intelligence be genuinely funny? (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Karen Hobbs was more nervous than usual before this particular gig. A well-known circuit comedian, she's accustomed to the UK's often bruising stand-up comedy scene. It's eclectic, unpredictable and famously short on pity-laughs. Hobbs has tackled some of the most unforgiving rooms in Britain, from major London theatres to the back rooms of rural pubs. She has even triumphed within the dreaded competition circuit, in which a merciless audience votes in a gladiatorial popularity contest for the funniest gags.

But this Thursday night in late June, above the Covent Garden Social Club bar in Central London, Hobbs was about to attempt something totally new. She would take to the stage equipped not with her usual material, but with a stand-up set written for her by the AI platform ChatGPT. Most daunting of all, she would follow three comedians doing their actual, human material.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

No. I watched/listened to the "George Carlin" AI bit and there was one joke that was so transgressive, and funny, I knew it couldn't have been written by an AI... I was right.

https://www.wired.com/story/george-carlin-ai-standup-written-by-humans/

The joke:

"AI-resurrected stand-up comedians are going to be the news anchors of the next decade, which, now that I think of it, means news anchors are probably out of a job too. And I know that some people are going to be against that. Some people are always going to want a real, flesh-and-blood human being observing the world and telling jokes about it. And I get that, I really do. But if you can keep an open mind, I think I can make a case for at least one comedian we can all agree is better in AI form: Bill Cosby.

With AI Bill Cosby, you get all of the Cosby jokes with none of the Cosby rapes. AI Bill Cosby doesn’t even have a penis. AI Bill Cosby couldn’t rape even if he wanted to. The worst thing AI Bill Cosby could do is send an unsolicited AI-generated dickpick, which means it won’t really look that much like a dick anyway. That’s not so bad, right? I think we can all agree that’s an acceptable price to pay to be able to feel good about listening to Bill Cosby’s timeless humor again.

And what about Louis CK? With AI Louis CK, you get all the innovative jokes about jerking off in front of people without any of the actual jerking off in front of people.

And the benefits of replacing members of society who commit sexual misconduct with their AI counterparts don’t stop at comedians. Imagine, for example, if we had AI priests. You could get all of the make-believe judgment from a God that doesn’t exist with none of the molested children. I mean, wouldn’t you feel better about giving your money to a tax-exempt billionaire in a funny hat if you could be confident he wasn’t using it to pay the legal fees of his child rapist employees? I know I would."