AI Toons

Valentine's Day - 2002

...and from February 13, 2004 (the day before Valentine's Day 2004):

Putting The Romance Into Robots As Man Finds Cyber Soulmate. Western Daily Press / available from this is Bistol. "Forget man's best friend being a dog - in the future it looks as if we will all become emotionally attached to our robots, a West scientist said last night. ... Dr Dylan Evans, who is in charge of Britain's first course in robotics, said new technology developed over the next decade will lead to the 'droids becoming emotionally responsive. He is even developing a football team with other boffins which they reckon will soon be able to take on human teams. Far from just helping with the dishes and cleaning, Dr Evans believes robots could soon be capable of having a full relationship with a human - including friendship, love and even sex. ... 'If robots become interesting enough, then we could get to the stage where robots are more fun than human companions. It's already possible for them to respond with some degree of emotional appropriateness.' ... Dr Evans says that his new course has been developed so that Britain can keep up with advances. The three-year BSc course, administered by the University's Department of Engineering, is the first of its kind in Britain. It will focus not just on industrial robotics but also more modern uses for robots, in particular in the field of entertainment."

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a FOOT + music NOTES

toon
footnotes

RE: REPRESENTATION tea tax toon
"In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place. American colonists, led by Samuel Adams, raided three British ships in Boston harbor and threw the tea overboard to protest the British tea tax. Soon thereafter, the colonists began to mobilize and to fight for independence. And 'no taxation without representation' became a rallying cry. A few years later, of course, after a long and hard-fought struggle, a free and independent America was born."
- excerpt from the statement of U.S. Senator Russell D. Feingold, Governmental Affairs Committee Hearing on "Voting Representation in Congress for Citizens of the District of Columbia" (May 23, 2002).

Research

Joke generator raises a chuckle - Software that can construct jokes has been created by researchers. BBC News (August 23, 2006). "The System to Augment Non-speakers Dialogue Using Puns (Standup) project has been developed by scientists at the Universities of Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Computer scientist Dr Annalu Waller, one of the project researchers the University of Dundee, said: 'Basically, the computer comes up with novel jokes - many of which are terrible.' ... Dr Waller said children who are unable to speak can suffer from communication setbacks because their computerised speech aids can lack scope for generating novel language. Language play, including use of humour, is believed to have a beneficial effect on a child's developing language and communication skills. ... 'It gives these kids the ability to control conversations, perhaps for the first time, it gives them the ability to entertain other people. And their self-image improves too.'"

For more information visit the STANDUP project (System To Augment Non-speakers Dialogue Using Puns) site and see the article, Computational Humor.

Computational Humor. By Kim Binsted, Benjamin Bergen, Seana Coulson, Anton Nijholt, Oliviero Stock, Carlo Strapparava, Graeme Ritchie, Ruli Manurung, Helen Pain, Annalu Waller, and David O'Mara. IEEE Intelligent Systems, March / April 2006, 21(2): 56 - 69. "If computers are ever going to communicate naturally and effectively with humans, they must be able to use humor. Moreover, humor provides insight into how humans process real, complex, creative language. By modeling humor generation and understanding on computers, we can gain a better picture of how the human brain handles not just humor but language and cognition in general. This installment of Trends & Controversies focuses on different aspects and applications of humor."

Current Directions in Computational Humour, by Graeme Ritchie (December 2000). Division of Informations at The University of Edinburgh.
ABSTRACT: "Humour is a valid subject for research in artificial intelligence as it is one of the more complex of human behaviors. Although philosophers and others have discussed humour for centuries, it is only very recently that computational work has begun in this field, so the state of the art is still rather basic. Much of the research has concentrated on humour expressed verbally, and there has been some emphasis on models based on "incongruity". Actual implementations have involved puns of very limited forms. It is not clear that computerised jokes could enhance user interfaces in the near future, but there is a role for computer modelling in testing symbolic accounts of the structure of humorous texts. A major problem is the need for a humour-processing program to have knowledge of the world, and reasoning abilities."

Computational Approach To Recognizing Wordplay In Jokes. By Julia Taylor and Lawrence J. Mazlack, Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, ECECS Department, University of Cincinnati . International Humor Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, Dijon, France, June 2004.
ABSTRACT: "With advancing developments of artificial intelligence, humor researchers have begun to look at approaches for computational humor. Although there appears to be no complete computational model for recognizing verbally expressed humor, it may be possible to recognize jokes based on statistical language recognition techniques. This paper describes an investigation into computational humor recognition. ..."

Also see Julia Taylor's Masters Thesis: Computational Recognition of Humor In A Focused Domain (May 2004).

Sharing a joke could help man and robot interact. By Michael Reilly. New Scientist (Issue 2615: page 26; August 4, 2007).
"A man walks into a bar: 'Ouch!' You might not find it funny, but at least you got the joke. That's more than can be said for computers, which, despite radical advances in artificial intelligence, remain notably devoid of a funny bone. Previously AI researchers have tended not to try mimicking humour, largely because the human sense of humour is so subjective and complex, making it difficult to program. Now Julia Taylor and Lawrence Mazlack of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio have built a computer program or 'bot' that is able to get a specific type of joke - one whose crux is a simple pun. ... Taylor presented the bot at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, Canada, last week but stresses that it does still miss some puns. ... Meanwhile Rada Mihalcea and colleagues at the University of North Texas in Denton have built a different kind of humour-spotting bot."

See: An Investigation into Computational Recognition of Children's Jokes. Julia M. Taylor, Lawrence J. Mazlack. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1904-1905. Menlo Park, Calif.: AAAI Press (2007).
Also see:
- Ctrl + Alt + Del if you've heard this one before. AFP / available from The Sydney Morning Herald (August 2, 2007). "Here's an example of what tickles a circuit board: - Mother to boy: 'My, you've been working in the garden a lot this summer.' - Boy: 'I have to, because teacher told me to work a lot' (thus a pun on working the soil and doing schoolwork)."
- UC Researchers Design Humorous ‘Robot' - UC engineering researchers reach new heights in robot sophistication -- or sink to new depths in bad jokes. By Wendy Beckman. UC News (August 2, 2007). "University of Cincinnati researchers Julia Taylor and Larry Mazlack recently unveiled a 'robot' -- more accurately a software program -- that recognizes jokes. They reported the development at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Vancouver, Canada. All bad jokes aside, their research represents a step forward in computers reaching the capability of a human mind. ... '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 ability to appreciate humor is an enormous increment in subtlety,' says Professor Tom Mantei, 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.'”

Programme information for Passions - Sue Nelson talks to scientists whose hobbies have influenced their scientific work . BBC Radio 4 (June 29, 2004; 09:30). "Kim [Dr Kim Binsted] had always had a love for making people laugh and was part of the improvisational comedy team at school. When her interest in physics and maths took her into artificial intelligence she fell back on her comedy background to help her work on a few problems in computers. Now, having created a programme where computers can generate there own puns, she works on a system that uses comedy to help children learn a new language, whilst still trying to fit a little improv in, in her spare time."

Dr. Binsted's publications (including some co-authored by Graeme Ritchie) can be found on the Binstead-McCay LLC web site. Her page at the University of Hawaii is here.

Digital Planet. BBC News (April 24, 2007 radio broadcast). "Welcome to Digital Planet, the weekly BBC World Service programme that reports on technology stories from around the globe. This week.... The Gigatron 5000 is a computer programmed to tell jokes. Owen Niblock, its designer and experienced stand-up comedian believes Gigatron offers new insights into artificial intelligence. Owen Nickblock is so confident about it that he has employed the Gigatron 5000 as his side-kick. The computer's range of jokes includes, 'what do computers like for dinner?'. The answer unsurprisingly is 'chips.' In Digital Planet, Gareth Mitchell explores its success." Jokes and the Logic of the Cognitive Unconscious. This is the net-version of Marvin Minsky's paper in Cognitive Constraints on Communication (1981). As noted by the author, "the paper is rather raw, because it's from a pre-publication draft file."Gigglebytes and related research links from the September 2005 issue of the AI Newsletter from Dr. Dobb's Journal and edited by Jocelyn Paine.

ALSO SEE:

A lot to be learned from computer's bad jokes. By Sam Leith. Telegraph (October 23, 2004). "Computers that can spew out jokes faster and more groanworthy than Jimmy Tarbuck would have dreamed may be a vital tool in teaching children to learn a second language, or in teaching disabled children to speak, an expert in Artificial Intelligence will tell a one-day conference next week. For most of us, being asked 'What do you give a hurt lemon?' and being told, 'lemon aid' sounds like the occasion for deep depression. But the fact that a computer program was able to ask that question and supply that answer has implications for structural linguistics, and for artificial intelligence. And, as Dr Kim Binsted will tell next week's Humour, Art and the Brain festival at Winchester, its applications may go far beyond the automated production of lolly sticks. ... The 'System To Augment Non-speaker's Dialogue Using Puns,' to give [Standup] its full name, helps speech-impaired children incorporate humour into their exchanges. Other versions of the technology can be used in automated 'chatbots' for second-language teaching."
Cracker joke or two to win a �500 prize from Asda and be a laugh next year. By David Williamson. The Western Mail / available from ic Wales (December 13, 2003). "One of the reasons such groan-inducing favourites are still attracting interest is that pioneers of artificial intelligence are teaching computers to tell Q&A jokes. So far, computers have learned how puns work and how to match them with nouns and verbs. Tests show that the jokes they have told are almost as funny as those told by humans. And researchers at the University of Edinburgh are hoping to create a 'language playground' where children will be able to experiment with words. Graeme Ritchie said, 'We are aiming it at children with disabilities becausethey are mainly deprived of the thrusting swapping of jokes with their peer group.' In scientific studies their Jape (Joke Analysis and Production Engine) system has amused children."
Joke-in-a-Box. By Simson Garfinkel. Wired Magazine (Issue 5.03 - Mar 1997). "Creating a computer program that automatically generates jokes is a formidable AI challenge, though, because humor requires large amounts of real-world knowledge. 'Puns use low-level ambiguities to suggest false semantic connections,' says [Kim] Binsted."

Why did the chicken cross the road ? (the link will take you to our NewsToons page)

Other Collections & Items

Tom Gauld "Past/Future AI" Cartoon (2011).

The History of Robots in the Victorian Era. Web site review by Jim Regan. csmonitor.com (January 16, 2004). "Robots have been making significant inroads into our culture over the last few years. They're roaming on and around distant planets, building cars, vacuuming the rug and even serving as surrogate pets. But it may surprise you to learn that sophisticated androids have been walking the earth since at least the late 1800s - achieving feats that still haven't been equalled in the 21st century. (One prototype actually took part in World War One.) The History of Robots in the Victorian Era follows the careers of these early automatons, and at the same time, tests the limits of human credibility. Launched in July 2000 to tell the amazing story of 'Boilerplate' (history's first mechanical soldier created in 1893), the website has since expanded to include three other milestones of robotic engineering - The Electric Man (1885), The Steam Man (1865), and the Automatic Man (exact date unknown). ... Truth be told, The History of Robots in the Victorian Era is an unintentional hoax.... Unfortunately, there was no way that I could properly review the site without first spilling the beans - since it's the execution of the fiction that makes The History remarkable. ... The History of Robots in the Victorian Era can be found at http://www.bigredhair.com/robots/. "

The Strange Case of the Spoofer Captured by a Spoof. By Edward Wyatt. The New York Times (November 1, 2005). "Mr. [Chris] Elliott, it turns out, is not the first person to be caught in Boilerplate's net. The Boilerplate site's digitally altered period photographs have roped in a number of victims, including various students of robotics who have asked technical questions about Boilerplate's means of propulsion and other historical details."

Schlock Mercenary, The Online Comic Space Opera by Howard Tyler. See the January 4, 2006 installment in which Captain Tagon asks: "Is this one of those 'machine ethics' questions?"

Professor Maria Petrou's Editorial of the IAPR [International Association for Pattern Recognition] Newsletter, Volume 19, Number 4, 1997, with cartoons!

Defend yourself against the coming robot rebellion - Don't let this happen to you! By Timothy McNulty. post-gazette.com (October 30, 2005). "'Any robot could rebel, from a toaster to a Terminator, and so it is crucial to learn the strengths and weaknesses of every robot enemy,' author Daniel H. Wilson warns in 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion.' What makes the book cool -- and unlike some other survival books -- is that Wilson is an actual roboticist, who got his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon last month. ... The book subtly educates about robots and technology while coming across as humor. Readers will learn about robot history, artificial intelligence and the problems scientists are currently working on, just by flipping through it."

Also see:
- The robots are coming! By Daniel Wilson. NewScientist.com news (December 20, 2005).
- If Robots Ever Get Too Smart, He'll Know How to Stop Them. By Cornelia Dean. The New York Times (February 14, 2006).
- Author back to give keynote address at Robot Hall of Fame ceremony. By Timothy McNulty. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 20, 2006).

Scientists Abandon AI Project After Seeing The Matrix. [Satire. "The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age."] The Onion (January 21, 2004 | Issue 40•03). "'As scientists of conscience, we must consider the ethical ramifications of AI development,' said Dr. Gregory Jameson, director of machine epistemology and ontology at MIT. 'The Matrix taught us that we cannot ignore our obligation to the future of mankind. We must free our minds to this fact, or we will accidentally unleash a nightmarish army of sentient machines.'"

Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars Unmanned Vehicle 'Bored Out Of Its Mind.' [Satire. "The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age."] The Onion (October 24, 2006 | Issue 42•43). "'Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behavior,' said Project Manager John Callas, who noted the rover's unsuccessful attempts to flip itself over and otherwise damage its scientific instruments. 'And the thousand or so daily messages of "STILL NO WATER" really point to a crisis of purpose.'"

robots.net Comics Page: home of Only Human and Emergent Behavior.

Robots and AI: "Not content to ridicule humans and animals, we turn our sights to Robots and AI: Artificial Intelligence. Batteries not included." Site hosted by Mike Durrett for About.

SERL 9000 WEBPAGE EXTRAVAGANZA,
the online home of the comic strip from
Guray Alsac, a student at Arizona State University.
Here you'll find episodes such as:

The Very Special "SERL 9000" Matrix parody
The Blocks Episode
The Infamous Turing Test Episode

As recounted by Guray:
"The strip is called 'SERL 9000,' named after the main character of the strip, SERL, a little robot in the AI Lab of a small university. He spends his days playing with blocks and occasionally wrestling with the daunting task of understanding human behavior. Unfortunately, his playmates are a lab monkey, Fredkin, and Lily, the six year old daughter of the head of research, Alan. So his primary sources for learning about humans come from a monkey whose bitterness towards humanity is surpassed only by his sarcasm, and a playful little girl whose exuberance would leave a hummingbird exhausted and confused, much less a simple robot. Needless to say, SERL is one very bewildered robot."

Cartoonbank.com: The New Yorker cartoon databank.

Go to "advanced search" and then scroll down the page to "Topics" where you'll find "Technology" and a subset for "Computers."

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AI Toons

Valentine's Day - 2002

Research

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