The New Scientist magazine reports in its latest issue on computational humor research at the department: Predictive text errors inspire AI comedians. This research is part of the computational creativity research in the Discovery group of Prof. Hannu Toivonen.

Cook [Michael Cook from Imperial College London] thinks they might be onto something. "By understanding what makes these accidental slip-ups so funny, we open up avenues for our software to entertain us on a daily basis," he says. "That's exactly the kind of thing I'd love this research to unlock - more ways to make us laugh, and a new way for AI to improve our day-to-day life."

Links:

• "Predictive text errors inspire AI comedians". Paul Marks. New Scientist, issue 2886 (13.10.2012), p. 23. (An online version is available here)
• "Decomposition and Distribution of Humorous Effect in Interactive Systems". Alessandro Valitutti, Hannu Toivonen, Oskar Gross, Jukka M. Toivanen. Artificial Intelligence of Humor in the AAAI Fall Symposium Series, Arlington, Virginia, USA, November 2012. Accepted for publication. (pdf file here)