Research shows: ChatGPT outperforms humans in telling jokes

A recent study has shown that artificial intelligence, particularly ChatGPT, is capable of creating more interesting jokes. This study, published in the Journal of Public Science Library · Comprehensive, explores participants' reactions to jokes created by ChatGPT 3.5 and humans.

Dr. Drew Gorantz, a doctoral student in social psychology at the Dornsife College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California, stated that the purpose of this study was to assess whether artificial intelligence can match or even surpass humans in terms of humor.

The researchers compared the humor skills of ChatGPT and humans.

The first part of the study aimed to determine which jokes were more interesting: those created by ordinary people or those created by ChatGPT. Participants were asked to rate the jokes without knowing the identity of the joke teller. The results showed that 68.2% of participants found the jokes created by ChatGPT more interesting than the written jokes created by humans. Among the participants, 25% preferred jokes created by humans, while only 5% found both sources equally funny. This trend was observed regardless of the participants' age, gender, marital status, or education level.

In the second experiment, the researchers wanted to see how ChatGPT performed compared to real humor writers. They asked ChatGPT to generate new titles with a satirical tone, similar to those found in "The Onion" news. Then, a second group of 200 people were asked to evaluate the humor of the original titles from "The Onion" and the newly generated titles by ChatGPT. Participants found the titles from ChatGPT equally enjoyable as the original titles from "The Onion".

In the first study, ChatGPT and 105 participants were asked to participate in three tasks related to humor creation. They created new phrases based on popular abbreviations and ironic jokes based on fictional awkward situations. These tasks resulted in humans creating over 945 jokes, while ChatGPT created 180 jokes. Participants then rated the humor of these jokes and found that on average, the jokes created by ChatGPT were more interesting.

In the second study, the researchers showed ChatGPT the original titles from "The Onion" and asked it to create new titles with the same tone. Participants also found these new titles humorous, with the same level of humor as the original titles, indicating that AI can create satirical works like human humor writers. Additionally, the recent strike by Hollywood writers and actors has demonstrated the threat that large language models pose to the professions of writers and actors and their creativity.

This study raises questions about further development of AI in the entertainment industry. It is worth noting that AI has the potential to create humor, which raises questions about its impact on human creativity and the comedy writing industry.