Think you're funny? ChatGPT might be funnier
A USC psychology study published in the journal PLOS ONE shows that AI-generated jokes tickle funny bones more than those created by people. Participants in the blind study even rated headlines made by artificial intelligence as funnier than those by the satirical newspaper, The Onion.
The punchline? The study raises concerns about AI’s threat to entertainment jobs and how the tool could be ethically deployed.
A Study in Humor
A study comparing jokes by people versus those told by ChatGPT shows that humans need to work on their material. The research team behind the study took on the serious task of comparing participants’ reactions to jokes written by ChatGPT 3.5 and others written by people. This was conducted in an effort to determine if artificial intelligence can outwit humans for a laugh.
"Since ChatGPT can't feel emotions itself but it tells novel jokes better than the average human, these studies provide evidence that you don't need to feel the emotions of appreciating a good joke to tell a really good one yourself," said Drew Gorenz, a doctoral candidate in social psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
One study compared the funniness of novel jokes crafted by regular people with the funniness of novel jokes generated by ChatGPT. Participants did so without knowing their author. The researchers found that overall, nearly 70% of the participants rated the ChatGPT-generated jokes as funnier than those crafted by humans.
To see how ChatGPT might fare against professional humor writers, the researchers conducted a second study in which they challenged ChatGPT to develop new headlines in the satirical style of The Onion. Participants found ChatGPT’s headlines just as funny as the original Onion headlines.
A Serious Look at AI in Comedy
Gorenz said his idea for the study stemmed in part from the entertainment world’s debate over writers' concerns about the use of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in entertainment production. The issue has been magnified due to recent strikes by Hollywood writers and actors who are fearful that the adoption of LLMs poses an existential threat to their respective professions, to art, and to human creativity.
"The implications are more positive for people who merely want to reap the benefits of elevating their everyday communications with a dose of humor," he wrote. "But for professional comedy writers, our results suggest that LLMs can pose a serious employment threat."
Whether AI gets the last laugh remains to be seen. Click here to read the full study at PLOS ONE.
