[baisl] Perhaps ripe for a "fake" news activity?
- From: "Debbie Abilock" <debbie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2019 12:01:14 -0800
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612776/computer-science-reveals-why-this-
headline-is-not-funny/
<https://www.technologyreview.com/topic/business-impact/> Business Impact
Computer science reveals why this headline is not funnyTo uncover the
secrets of humor, researchers crowdsourced the task of turning satirical
sentences from The Onion into serious ones. January 23, 2019
Humor seems to be an inherent part of the human condition. Our ability to
smile, laugh, and giggle plays an important role in social situations; that
piques the interest of sociologists and anthropologists. But you have to
"get" a joke before you can laugh, so humor is also of interest to cognitive
psychologists.
That immediately introduces a potential role for artificial intelligence. So
computer scientists have begun asking whether humor can be computed-and if
so, how.
Any attempt to answer that question immediately runs into a problem: the
lack of suitable databases that lend themselves to computational study. For
example, a database of similar sentences that are funny and unfunny would
allow researchers to tease apart the difference between them and work out
how to convert one into the other. But such a database has been sadly
lacking.
Enter Robert West at EPFL in Switzerland and Eric Horvitz at Microsoft
Research in the US. These guys have used satirical news headlines, which are
generally funny, to crowdsource a database of similar sentences that are not
funny.
By studying the differences between these sentences, the researchers can see
how the switch from funny to unfunny occurs and where the origin of humor
must lie. "It would allow us to understand why a satirical text is funny at
a finer granularity than previously possible, by identifying the exact words
that make the difference between serious and funny," they say. The result is
a unique insight into the nature of humor.
best,
debbie
Debbie Abilock
NoodleTools/NoodleTeach
Smart tools, smart research, smart teaching
Abilock, Debbie. "
<https://books.google.com/books?id=rSpzDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=From+a
+Foot+in+the+Door+to+Being+There+Abilock&source=bl&ots=qzSk_VH5w4&sig=_I22-b
tAAxZDfsEhZ-G_BD-dC0A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0s975l-bTAhWoiFQKHaaFCo8Q6AEIJz
AA#v=onepage&q=From%20a%20Foot%20in%20the%20Door%20to%20Being%20There%20Abil
ock&f=false> From a Foot in the Door to Being There: Leadership along a
Professional Development Continuum." Libraries Unlimited-ABC CLIO, 2017.
Sample SLC
<https://www.academia.edu/12296633/How_do_I_teach_students_to_write_a_resear
chable_question> Friction column
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