Can artificial intelligence do everything except funny things?

In an episode posted on YouTube, a baby and the family dog can be seen sitting opposite each other in a podcast studio.

“Welcome to the talking baby podcast,” the baby, wearing headphones, said, but with a deep, radio announcer-like voice. “In today’s episode, we’ll be talking to the strange-looking person who lives in my house.”

This is one of a series of humorous interactive clips between two characters created by artificial intelligence, attracting millions of views on social media. It's reminiscent of the 1989 film "Look Who's Talking ," only it was produced in just a few hours and didn't require a multi-million dollar Hollywood budget.

AI has helped with all of that, but it doesn't generate the funny lines. For comedian Jon Lajoie, who made the videos , it's a relief to know that the AI chatbot isn't "inherently funny."

"He can't write comedies," Lajoie said. "He can't do any of that."

At least for now, he can rest assured that AI won't steal his job.

Lajoie's viral videos have helped him gain attention as an entertainer using artificial intelligence. However, he still feels somewhat uneasy about the future of his career.

Music artist King Willonius wasn't so cautious. His first major success was an AI-generated song called "BBL Drizzy," which mocked rapper Drake at the height of his feud with Kendrick Lamar.

Since then, he has moved on to making AI-generated parody videos such as “I'm McLovin It (Popeye's Diss Song)” and “I Want My Barrel Back (Cracker Barrel Song).”

“It’s very similar to someone writing a script for ‘The Onion’ or ‘SNL’ ,” Willonius said. “I try to figure out what the funny angle is about this particular topic? And then I’ll create a video from that.”

He started by writing down his own notes about an idea, then refined it with a chatbot, and fed that language—called prompts—into AI tools that could generate images, videos, music, and speech. The key, he says, is to keep repeating.

But he wouldn't ask it to produce a joke. Willonius says that most chatbot-generated comedy videos lack "the nuances or complexity necessary to make a truly impactful joke."

A comedy scholar, Michelle Robinson, says that "a lot of what I see AI creating is very bland."

“It seems to master the basic grammar of jokes, but sometimes they’re a little off,” said Robinson, a professor of American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “They can be pretty funny, but I think they really lack a crucial element that makes us laugh.”

What are they missing? She wasn't entirely sure, except that most good jokes are a little daring or dangerous, and chatbots don't seem able to adjust "any provocation in the joke to suit the times we're living in."

Caleb Warren, a professor of marketing and consumer psychology research at the University of Arizona, said this gives comedy writers the opportunity to use AI tools while still relying on their skills.

"The ideas for humor come from the comedian themselves," but AI tools can help them execute and illustrate them, Warren said.

Willonius began experimenting with AI during strikes by actors and screenwriters in Hollywood in 2023.

“I was completely focused on AI because I didn’t know what else to do with my free time,” he said. “I did everything I could to try to break into Hollywood. And when the writers’ strike happened, that shut everything down. I started learning these AI tools and became very good at them, and then started building an audience.”

Musician King Willonius. (Source: Japan Today)

While Willonius found opportunity in artificial intelligence, on the other hand, the rise of generative AI has caused divisions and posed challenges for other professional comedians.

Sarah Silverman, along with other authors, has sued leading chatbot manufacturers, alleging copyright infringement of her memoir, "The Bedwetter ." The daughter of the late actor Robin Williams called it "disgusting" and "insane" that users of OpenAI's Sora AI video creation software were producing realistic "deepfakes" of the beloved actor to create what she described as a "terrible TikTok puppet show."

"You're not creating art, you're creating disgusting, over-processed sausages from human life, from art history and music, and shoving them down people's throats hoping they'll give you a thumbs-up and like it," Zelda Williams wrote in October.

And last year, the family of comedy legend George Carlin became involved in a lawsuit against podcasters who allegedly copied his voice to create a hours-long, fake comedy show.

Comics also have a knack for satirizing AI tools. A recent episode of "South Park," titled " Sora Not Sorry," tells the story of a clumsy police detective investigating a fake video scam.

Lajoie said he shared his early AI experiment videos with a few friends who were “anti-AI; really, really anti-AI,” and they were surprised that the short clips still retained Lajoie’s signature comedic tone.

He insists he's not an AI expert, just "a creative person who can figure out how to get two characters to talk to each other." But even editing short clips requires an understanding of when to laugh, and he has no interest in leaving that part to machines.

“The important thing about comedy is that it’s very much about acting, delivery, and perspective,” Lajoie said. “Does AI have its own perspective? It can pick up a few perspectives from different people.”

"And when it takes on its own opinion, I think that's when we should all be afraid for all the reasons the Terminator has taught us," he said.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/tri-tue-nhan-tao-co-the-lam-duoc-moi-thu-tru-nhung-dieu-hai-huoc-post1082368.vnp