AI-generated jokes funnier than those created by humans, University of Southern California study finds
Move over comedians, there’s a new stand-up act in town.
A recently released study from the University of Southern California found that the AI-generated jokes outperformed those crafted by humans.
Nearly 70% of the participants rated ChatGPT jokes as funnier than those written by regular people. By comparison, 25% favored the human jokes and 5% rated the jokes as equally funny.
The Onion, “America’s Finest News Source.”
Here the human writers fared a bit better: the average humor rating was the same for the Onion headlines and those generated by ChatGPT, said Gorenz.
ChatGPT came up with the top-rated headline “Local Man Discovers New Emotion, Still Can’t Describe It Properly.” In second place was one from The Onion: “Man Locks Down Marriage Proposal Just As Hair Loss Becomes Noticeable.”
The USC study comes at a time when the entertainment professionals — comedians included — are fretting over how AI could reshape their jobs.
In January, the estate of George Carlin filed a lawsuit against a media company, alleging it used artificial intelligence to recreate the late standup comic’s style and material.
As far as Gorenz is concerned, the results of the study indicate that ChatGPT could disproportionately disrupt comedy and entertainment, especially given that the bar for accuracy in those industries might be lower when compared to say science, education and journalism.
Still, he doesn’t think America’s favorite stand-up comedians are going anywhere anytime soon. “I don’t think it’s able to create a John Mulaney level joke,” he said.
Source: cbsnews.com