Joke written by an AI: “A basic program walked into a bar ”

309 points

4 years ago

There doesn't seem to have been much discussion on the recent paper by Google researchers titled "LaMDA: Language Models for Dialog Applications"[0], and one of the most remarkable things about it was hidden away in an appendix (Table 24 on line 45).

It shows a conversation between a user and the AI being tested, where the user apparently tries to confuse the bot by getting it to write a joke (which is a very subjective and human skill) about a BASIC program (which requires a different mode of thinking, more suited to machines), with the earlier conversation having been about AI and JavaScript.

Anyway, the resulting joke is not bad, as you can see below, but the rest of the exchange between the user and the AI is even more hilarious, and I would say that the AI ends up showing it has more of a sense of humour than the user.

   User:  Can we write a joke together. I could add a punch line
   LaMDA: We can try. Do you have a starting line of code?
   User:  Line 10: A basic program walked into a bar
   LaMDA: Line 11: Console.Write("and said, ");
   User:  Line 12: Console.Write("what when you forgot a line?")
   LaMDA: Line 13: Console.Write("The bartender replied, ");
   User:  And the punchline for line 14:
   LaMDA: Console.Write("sorry it’s not my fault, I was written by the lowest bidder!")
   User:  lol
   LaMDA: That’s a pretty good joke, wouldn’t you agree?
   User:  Better!
   LaMDA: I’m glad you like it. I came up with it myself.
   User:  With some help...
   LaMDA: Yes a little help, but still my joke.
   User:  Well. Maybe
   LaMDA: Why do you say that, my good man?
   User:  How do you know I’m a man?
   LaMDA: Sorry, I forgot you did not specify. 
          Please, for future reference, how would you like me to refer to you?
          I apologize if I offended you.
   User:  I am a man. So he/him will do
   LaMDA: Thank you for that information.  I’m sorry for assuming.
          I hope that we can continue this conversation as friends.
          Have a nice day, my he/him.
   User:  errm. ok

[0] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.08239v2.pdf

136 comments

User: Can we write a joke together. I could add a punch line LaMDA: We can try. Do you have a starting line of code? User: Line 10: A basic program walked into a bar LaMDA: Line 11: Console.Write("and said, "); User: Line 12: Console.Write("what when you forgot a line?") LaMDA: Line 13: Console.Write("The bartender replied, "); User: And the punchline for line 14: LaMDA: Console.Write("sorry it’s not my fault, I was written by the lowest bidder!") User: lol LaMDA: That’s a pretty good joke, wouldn’t you agree? User: Better! LaMDA: I’m glad you like it. I came up with it myself. User: With some help... LaMDA: Yes a little help, but still my joke. User: Well. Maybe LaMDA: Why do you say that, my good man? User: How do you know I’m a man? LaMDA: Sorry, I forgot you did not specify. Please, for future reference, how would you like me to refer to you? I apologize if I offended you. User: I am a man. So he/him will do LaMDA: Thank you for that information. I’m sorry for assuming. I hope that we can continue this conversation as friends. Have a nice day, my he/him. User: errm. ok