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September 02, 2010

So A Robot Walks Into A Bar

NP: Radiohead, "High and Dry"

I actually took an artificial intelligence class from Kristian Hammond in my senior year of college, and so I'm definitely going to join in his defense when it comes to the stimulus grant to study "machine-generated humor."

One of the most interesting things I learned from Hammond -- who dabbled with Second City back then, so his claims of not being a funny guy ring a bit hollow -- was how artificial intelligence struggles mightily with double meanings. The example he used was "the old man's glasses were filled with Sherry." Not sure why I still remember that. The point is that humor relies pretty heavily on these sorts of constructions, so there's a lot of depth there to plumb.

For Republicans calling out the program as wasteful, I do feel I should point out that if any of these computer algorithms ever become sentient and hell-bent on world domination, they may come after the folks who tried smothering them in the cradle first.

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