A Robot Walks into a Bar: Can Language Models Serve as Creativity Support Tools for Comedy? An Evaluation of LLMs’ Humour Alignment with Comedians

Authors: PW Mirowski, J Love, K Mathewson, S Mohamed

Published: 2024

Publication: ArXiv

Professional comedians found LLMs insufficient as creativity support tools for comedy, citing bias, bland output, and reinforcement of hegemonic viewpoints.

Methods: Workshops conducted with professional comedians combining comedy writing sessions using LLMs, a Creativity Support Index questionnaire, and focus groups discussing their experiences and ethical concerns.

Key Findings: Effectiveness of LLMs as creativity support tools for comedy writing, ethical concerns (bias, censorship, copyright), and value alignment in AI outputs.

Limitations: Small sample size, comedic effectiveness highly subjective, and specific to professional comedians' perspectives; study primarily discusses Western viewpoints.

Institution: Google DeepMind, Google

Research Area: AI Creativity, Humor Generation,Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Discipline: Artificial Intelligence

Sample Size: 20 participants

Citations: 52