With writers on strike, will AI chatbots be as funny as Stephen Colbert?

Hollywood writers are on strike and late night TV shows are on hiatus. Can AI be substituted?

Union negotiations between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and major studios have led to wages as well as artificial intelligence for writing scripts.

The WGA likened the use of AI in screenplays to plagiarism and said it was fighting to regulate the technology because it “undermines writers’ standards of work, including remuneration.”

Among the first victims of the strike are late-night TV shows. This relies on a slew of writers to turn the events of the day into gold comedies in no time. So far, Jimmy Kimmel Live! , The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon have all announced hiatus as the writers join the picket line.

So we put ChatGPT to the test to see if it could match the talent and comedic spirit of America’s favorite late-night host and the team of writers behind it. Did. But were they funny?

First Test – We asked ChatGPT to write the opening monologue of Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, which includes jokes about writers’ strikes and artificial intelligence.

Here is part of what is written:

“Hey, hey, hey! Welcome to The Tonight Show, folks. As you may have heard, the Writers Guild of America is on strike. We stand with them in the battle for the ‘conditions’.

“People, it’s not easy to come up with a joke on the fly without a talented writer. There may be. It’s longer!…”

“Some people may say that we don’t need human writers anymore, that machines can do more than we can. I mean, they can, but can they come up with really original, out-of-the-box jokes like this one?

Okay, here we go: Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide! – An old man’s brain, but you get the idea. ”

As a viewer of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I felt that the AI ​​did a good job of capturing Fallon’s sincerity to the writers’ strike. At the Met Gala, the comedian told Variety that he “wouldn’t have put on the show if it wasn’t for my writers,” and you can sense his support for the strike in the AI ​​monologue.

The “chicken crosses the playground” part wasn’t exactly horizontal, but it’s not irrelevant. His one of the many reasons viewers love him is Fallon’s corny dad jokes.

On Monday night, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue included a segment about President Joe Biden announcing he would seek re-election despite age concerns. Can a chatbot do a better job with the same references?

Stephen Colbert vs AI Colbert on Biden’s re-election announcement.

The real Stephen Colbert:

“Of course, we know that the real enemy of President Biden is the ravages of time. I feel like it’s overkill. [expletive] Old…but the point is that Biden is young at heart…all we have to worry about is all his other organs. ”

“Ladies and gentlemen, today is big news. President Biden has announced that he is running for re-election. It’s just saying age” number, and it’s 78!

“Well, I know some people may be worried about President Biden’s age. A recent poll found that 50% of Americans said they were worried about his age, compared to the remaining 50. % was Joe Biden, age doesn’t matter, he has the energy and memory of a 30-year-old.

Biden’s joke isn’t half bad, but it comes with an important caveat. Biden is actually 80 now, so the joke about him being 78 highlights the algorithm’s biggest weakness. In other words, ChatGPT can only refer to his events that occurred up to 2021. event.

We also asked the bot to provide poll data for the joke that about 50% of Americans said they were worried about Biden’s age. I got “Unable to access current polling data”. For some experts, the lack of accuracy is a big problem, highlighting concerns about AI and the spread of misinformation.

Now, back on topic, can AI tell jokes? We asked ChatGPT to write a Fallon-esque joke about last night’s Met Gala and actor Jared Leto’s costume. Here’s what I came up with:

“Did you see the Met Gala last night? It was wild. Jared Leto showed up in a full-body chandelier outfit. Jared candidly-up said, “I want to be the fanciest lamp in the room!”

For those of you who haven’t seen Met Gala photos, this joke might have been funny. Jared Leto has worn bold outfits in the past (including his year with his own head), but he’s never dressed like a chandelier. That honor goes to Katy Perry for lighting up the Met stairs in 2019.

Rumors of Hollywood’s demise at the hands of artificial intelligence seem a little exaggerated, at least for now.

According to ChatGPT’s creators, ChatGPT is still in the “research stage” and while the AI ​​is certainly powerful, smart and adaptive, there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to accuracy and comedic timing.

Overall, I was impressed with ChatGPT’s ability to mimic the monologue style and tone of America’s biggest late-night hosts, but even knowing that its jokes lacked the human touch, AI Stephen Colbert Please ask.

“Truth be told, no one wants to see a robot monologue. Unless it’s a robot with impeccable comical timing and a charming personality, but luckily he can find one.

“Anyway, let’s hope the WGA and the studios reach an agreement soon. If we don’t get an agreement, we’ll all be out of work and replaced by robots. Hey, that’s not the first time. No. When I’m replaced by machines, ask my Roomba.”