A robot walks into a bar. It goes CLANG.

Alexa and Siri can tell jokes mined from a humour database, but they donB次元官网网址檛 get them.

Linguists and computer scientists say this is something to consider on April FoolsB次元官网网址� Day: Humor is what makes humans special. When people try to teach machines whatB次元官网网址檚 funny, the results are at times laughable but not in the way intended.

B次元官网网址淎rtificial intelligence will never get jokes like humans do,B次元官网网址� said Kiki Hempelmann, a computational linguist who studies humour at Texas A&M University-Commerce. B次元官网网址淚n themselves, they have no need for humour. They miss completely context.B次元官网网址�

And when it comes to humour, the people who study it B次元官网网址� sometimes until all laughs are beaten out of it B次元官网网址� say context is key. Even expert linguists have trouble explaining humour, said Tristan Miller, a computer scientist and linguist at Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany.

B次元官网网址淐reative language B次元官网网址� and humour in particular B次元官网网址� is one of the hardest areas for computational intelligence to grasp,B次元官网网址� said Miller, who has analyzed more than 10,000 puns and called it torture. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 because it relies so much on real-world knowledge B次元官网网址� background knowledge and commonsense knowledge. A computer doesnB次元官网网址檛 have these real-world experiences to draw on. It only knows what you tell it and what it draws from.B次元官网网址�

Allison Bishop , a Columbia University computer scientist who also performs stand-up comedy, said computer learning looks for patterns, but comedy thrives on things hovering close to a pattern and veering off just a bit to be funny and edgy.

Humour, she said, B次元官网网址渉as to skate the edge of being cohesive enough and surprising enough.B次元官网网址�

For comedians thatB次元官网网址檚 job security. Bishop said her parents were happy when her brother became a full-time comedy writer because it meant he wouldnB次元官网网址檛 be replaced by a machine.

B次元官网网址淚 like to believe that there is something very innately human about what makes something funny,B次元官网网址� Bishop said.

Oregon State University computer scientist Heather Knight created the comedy-performing robot Ginger to help her design machines that better interact with B次元官网网址� and especially respond to B次元官网网址� humans. She said it turns out people most appreciate a robotB次元官网网址檚 self-effacing humour.

Ginger, which uses human-written jokes and stories, does a bit about Shakespeare and machines, asking, B次元官网网址淚f you prick me in my battery pack, do I not bleed alkaline fluid?B次元官网网址� in a reference to B次元官网网址淭he Merchant of Venice.B次元官网网址�

Humour and artificial intelligence is a growing field for academics.

Some computers can generate and understand puns B次元官网网址� the most basic humour B次元官网网址� without help from humans because puns are based on different meanings of similar-sounding words. But they fall down after that, said Purdue University computer scientist Julia Rayz.

B次元官网网址淭hey get them B次元官网网址� sort of,B次元官网网址� Rayz said. B次元官网网址淓ven if we look at puns, most of the puns require huge amounts of background.B次元官网网址�

Still, with puns there is something mathematical that computers can grasp, Bishop said.

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Rayz has spent 15 years trying to get computers to understand humour, and at times the results were, well, laughable. She recalled a time she gave the computer two different groups of sentences. Some were jokes. Some were not. The computer classified something as a joke that people thought wasnB次元官网网址檛 a joke. When Rayz asked the computer why it thought it was a joke, its answer made sense technically. But the material still wasnB次元官网网址檛 funny, nor memorable, she said.

IBM has created artificial intelligence that beat opponents in chess and B次元官网网址淛eopardy!B次元官网网址� Its latest attempt, Project Debater , is more difficult because it is based on language and aims to win structured arguments with people, said principal investigator Noam Slonim, a former comedy writer for an Israeli version B次元官网网址淪aturday Night Live.B次元官网网址�

Slonim put humour into the programming, figuring that an occasional one-liner could help in a debate. But it backfired during initial tests when the system made jokes at the wrong time or in the wrong way. Now, Project Debater is limited to one attempt at humour per debate, and that humour is often self-effacing.

B次元官网网址淲e know that humour B次元官网网址� at least good humour B次元官网网址� relies on nuance and on timing,B次元官网网址� Slonim said. B次元官网网址淎nd these are very hard to decipher by an automatic system.B次元官网网址�

ThatB次元官网网址檚 why humour may be key in future Turing Tests B次元官网网址� the ultimate test of machine intelligence, which is to see if an independent evaluator can tell if it is interacting with a person or computer, Slonim said.

ThereB次元官网网址檚 still B次元官网网址渁 very significant gap between what machines can do and what humans are doing,B次元官网网址� both in language and humour, Slonim said.

There are good reasons to have artificial intelligence try to learn to get humour, Darmstadt UniversityB次元官网网址檚 Miller said. It makes machines more relatable, especially if you can get them to understand sarcasm. That also may aid with automated translations of different languages, he said.

Texas A&MB次元官网网址檚 Hempelmann isnB次元官网网址檛 so sure thatB次元官网网址檚 a good idea.

B次元官网网址淭eaching AI systems humour is dangerous because they may find it where it isnB次元官网网址檛 and they may use it where itB次元官网网址檚 inappropriate,B次元官网网址� Hempelmann said. B次元官网网址淢aybe bad AI will start killing people because it thinks it is funny.B次元官网网址�

Comedian and computer scientist Bishop does have a joke about artificial intelligence: She says she agrees with all the experts warning us that someday AI is going to surpass human intelligence.

B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 think itB次元官网网址檚 because AI is getting smarter,B次元官网网址� Bishop jokes, then she adds: B次元官网网址淚f the AI gets that, I think we have a problem.B次元官网网址�

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Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press

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