ScienceDaily: Humorous 'Bot' Recognizes Jokes http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070816111749.htm

1 of 2 8/21/2007 5:42 PM

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University of Cincinnati researchers Julia Taylor and Larry Mazlack recently unveiled a "bot" -- more accurately a software program -- that recognizes jokes. (Credit: Lisa Ventre/UCPhotographic Services)

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Source: University of CincinnatiDate: August 17, 2007

More on: Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, Computer Science, Encryption, Robotics, Hacking

Humorous 'Bot' Recognizes Jokes

Science Daily — University of Cincinnati researchers Julia Taylor and LarryMazlack recently unveiled a "bot” — more accurately a software program —that recognizes jokes. They reported the development at the AmericanAssociation for Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, Canada. All badjokes aside, their research represents a step forward in computers reachingthe capability of a human mind.

Taylor, a doctoral student under UCProfessor Mazlack, is studying datamining — the science of derivingmeaning from large amounts of data.Mazlack is the coordinator of theApplied Artificial IntelligenceLaboratory and coordinator of theData and Knowledge Managementresearch group. Taylor specificallyresearches humor in robots.

"This work has a relationship to 'Sociable Computing,'" says Mazlack. "Currently, computers are often difficult to communicate with, to use and to apply to solving problems that are informally stated."

This area has been researched for decades and has also been the subject of many Star Trek episodes. Developments such as these offer sophisticated improvements in robots that are used as companions or to otherwise interact directly with humans.

“The ‘robot’ is just a softwareprogram that still needs a lot of work,”says researcher Taylor. “The idea isto be able to recognize jokes that arebased on phonological similarity ofwords.”

The program can in fact recognizejokes, but only when the necessarybackground and world knowledge areprovided, she says. “The ontologythat provides this knowledge is awork-in-progress at this stage. So,the software is far from beingfinished, but does produce someresults.”

Taylor had the distinct task of“training” the computer by providing itwith information relative to AmericanEnglish at a child’s level. Theydeveloped an extensive list ofknock-knock jokes that turn on people’s names, particularly.

Knock, Knock

Who is there?

Dawn

Dawn who?

Dawn by the station, early in the morning

Knock, Knock

Who is there?

Wendy

Wendy who?

Wendy last time you took a bath?

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ScienceDaily: Humorous 'Bot' Recognizes Jokes http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070816111749.htm

2 of 2 8/21/2007 5:42 PM

Then they gave the “bot” several examples of words that can have different meanings andhomonyms, as in puns. The program then checks to see if the message is consistent withwhat would make sense. If it doesn’t, the bot searches to see if the word sounds similar to aword that would fit. If this is the case, the bot flags it as humor.

Knock, Knock

Who is there?

Dismay

Dismay who?

Dismay not be a funny joke

“Even leaden puns are very difficult to understand as well,” says Taylor. “With theknowledge that is in the ontology right now, there are very, very few jokes (or puns) that theprogram can understand.”

“The ability to appreciate humor is an enormous increment in subtlety,” says Professor TomMantei, a fellow researcher in UC’s College of Engineering. “You need to know a lot to ‘get’humor — a computer does not find it easy.”

"Part of the difficulty lies with the formality that computers and people need to use tointeract with each other," says Mazlack. "A critical aspect in achieving sociable computing isbeing able to informally communicate in a human language with computers.Computationally handling humor is critical to being able to conduct an informal dialoguewith a computer; Julia Taylor is making good progress in advancing knowledge in this area— other people in my lab are working on different aspects of less formal ways of usingcomputers."

Knock, Knock

Who is there?

Police

Police who?

Police tell me some Knock Knock jokes

Here’s an example of one of the robot’s favorite jokes:

Mother to boy: “Johnny, you’ve been working in the garden a lot this summer.

Boy: “I know. My teacher told me to weed a lot.”

“Notice that the boy says the teacher told him to WEED. Since ‘weed’ sounds similar to'read,' the program can find this wordplay,” Taylor says.

Mantei adds, “This research is another step toward approaching the capability of the humanmind.”

Knock, Knock

Who is there?

Noah

Noah who?

Noah good place to find more jokes?

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Cincinnati.

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