back to article Wow, great invention: Now AI eggheads teach machines how to be sarcastic using Reddit

Dealing with chatbots and virtual assistants can be so frustrating that it’s normal for humans to start getting snarky. Such run-ins would be a little more entertaining if the machines could give some of that sass back. Unfortunately, it’ll be awhile before that can happen since computers don’t really understand sarcasm at all …

  1. Dave 126 Silver badge

    It's a small, off-duty Czechoslovakian traffic warden.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    So, where’s the best place to learn sarcasm?

    Maybe they should take a look at ElReg's comments section...

    Or my other favorite... Fark.com....

  3. ivan5

    It might be helpful if they managed to produce an AI first rather than trying to sound smart by using the marketing hype and buzzwords.

    1. veti Silver badge

      Oh yes, that'll work, because everyone knows what "AI" is - no ambiguity about that at all.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How well does it pick up the snark when I respond back ala ELIZA?

  5. Nick Kew

    Superhuman?

    Computers have to follow what is being said by whom, the context of the conversation and often some real world facts to understand cultural references.

    We on El Reg might aspire to all that, but many humans can keep it up consistently?

    Cultural references? I'll get some of them (e.g. Pratchett); others (like things off the telly) are likely to go straight over my head. You (other commentard) will share some but not all of mine.

    Real world facts? Fake news! Big grey areas there.

    Context? Well, shouldn't the article have put AI expectations into the context of how real-life human intelligence looks? Sorry, weak example, I'm only human.

    what is being said by whom? Misattribution is so mainstream it has a whole raft of sub-classes: honest confusion, the generic "they say", deliberate misrepresentation and spin, the strawman, the "Melanie Phillips translation", etc.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Superhuman?

      Indeed - my first post on this thread about a traffic warden is a cultural reference, one that is trivial for a computer to search for. Because it makes no sense in this context to any human who doesn't recognise it, it's also easy for a human to search for, but not all cultural references advertise themselves as such.

      A human might write "We're going to need a bigger boat" (Jaws) or "life will find a way" ( Jurassic Park) a context where it makes sense in its own, so another human might miss that it is quote.

      Then of course we have snow clones... We're going to need a bigger goat, self replicating resource consuming Von Neumann machines will find a way. Python? I hate Python!

      1. Nick Kew

        Re: Superhuman?

        Indeed - my first post on this thread about a traffic warden is a cultural reference,

        Indeed, I guessed it was: looks like the only way your post makes sense. Though it didn't seem important enough to google it, since the overhead for me is that little bit more than for an AI.

        If I'd thought Reg readers needed me to spell out how it makes my point, I'd have ... well, I'd probably not care enough to participate here in the first place.

    2. onefang

      Re: Superhuman?

      "Cultural references? I'll get some of them (e.g. Pratchett); others (like things off the telly) are likely to go straight over my head. You (other commentard) will share some but not all of mine."

      Sometimes the context tells me that something is a cultural reference that I've never seen before. Sometimes I even bother to search for it, in order to understand the commentard better. Other times I just assume humour / sarcasm, and move on.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I know more than a few people

    Who have a sarcasm detection rate far below 69%.

    1. tiggity Silver badge

      Re: I know more than a few people

      The devs were Bill & Ted fans, so once it was tuned to 69% their job was done

    2. Chris G

      Re: I know more than a few people

      An individual with a low SQ (sarcasm quotient) would be my old boss, his sense of humour was minimal too, being limited to sacking people, that was the only time he would smile.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sarcastic AIs

    Oh great! I can't think of a more worthwhile endeavour. The world really needs this.

  8. onefang

    So when will El Reg add the automatic AI sarc tag generator to comments? It'll save an awful lot of typing.

  9. User McUser
    Terminator

    Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With!

    "Dealing with chatbots and virtual assistants can be so frustrating that it’s normal for humans to start getting snarky. Such run-ins would be a little more entertaining if the machines could give some of that sass back" said the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation representative.

    No wonder they were first against the wall...

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