University of Sydney researchers have used an AI-assisted application to help people write cartoon captions for cartoons published in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. Twenty participants with little to no experience writing cartoon captions wrote 400 cartoon captions: 200 captions were written with the help from the AI tool, and the remainder were written without assistance. A second group of 67 people then rated how funny these cartoon captions were. The researchers found jokes written with the help of the tool were found to be significantly funnier than those written without the tool. Comparatively, ratings for the AI assisted captions were almost 30% closer to the winning captions in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. Participants said the tool helped them piece together humorous narratives and get started, helping to understand nuances and funny elements, and to come up with new ideas. Almost half, 95 out of the 200 jokes written with the help of AI were also rated as funnier than the original cartoon captions by The New Yorker. “The AI tool helps people be significantly funnier, but more importantly, it may be a cure for writer’s block,” said Dr. Anusha Withana from the School of Computer Science and Digital Sciences Initiative. Dr. Withana and his team conceived the tool to help non-native speakers understand humor in their new language. The results also showed non-native speakers found the tool more helpful, bringing them 43% closer to the winning caption. The original aspiration for the research was to use technology to help get creative juices flowing and get words down on the page. Alister Palmer, a master’s student and amateur cartoonist conceived the idea to engage more people in cartooning. The tool works through an algorithm which assesses incongruity. It analyzes the words in a description of the cartoon and generates incongruous words as hints for the cartoonist. For example, in one cartoon where a person is depicted wearing a rabbit suit to the office, the tool suggested the words “rabbit” and “soup” (derived from the incongruity with the word “suit”). One of the pilot study participants came up with the caption “I meant the rabbit soup, not suit.” The winning caption at The New Yorker competition was “It’s not just Henderson. Corporate laid off the entire bunny division.” Professor Judy Kay said this approach means we can explain how the AI works: “With AI playing a bigger role in our lives, our team wanted to create this tool so that people can feel in control.” (SD-Agencies) Words to Learn 相关词汇 【细微差别】xìwēi chābié nuance a very slight difference in appearance, meaning, sound, etc. 【不协调的事物】bù xiétiáo de shìwù incongruity something unusual or different from what is around or from what is generally happening 悉尼大学的研究人员使用了一款人工智能辅助应用程序,来帮助人们为《纽约客》漫画说明大赛撰写漫画说明。 有20名参与者几乎没有撰写漫画说明的经验,他们写了400个漫画说明:200个是在人工智能工具的帮助下撰写的,其余的则是没有任何协助。 另有67人对这些漫画说明的幽默程度进行了评分。研究人员发现,借助该工具撰写的笑话明显比未使用该工具的更加幽默。相比之下,人工智能辅助说明的评分接近《纽约客》漫画说明大赛获胜者说明的程度高出近30%。 参与者表示,该工具帮助他们拼凑出有趣的故事情节,并提供启发,有助于理解幽默的细微之处,产生新的创意。 有95个在人工智能协助下撰写的200个笑话,被评为比《纽约客》原创漫画说明更加幽默。 “人工智能工具有助于人们显著提升幽默感,但更重要的是,它可能是对写作障碍的一剂良方,”计算机科学与数字科学学院的Anusha Withana博士说。 Withana博士和他的团队构思了这款工具,目的是帮助非母语使用者更好地理解新语言中的幽默。结果还显示,非母语使用者发现这款工具更加有帮助,他们的获奖说明水平提高了43%。 这项研究的最初愿景是,利用技术帮助激发创意,促进创作。硕士生和业余漫画家Alister Palmer构思了这个想法,旨在吸引更多人参与漫画创作。 这款工具通过一种分析不协调性的算法运作。它分析漫画描述中的词语,并生成不协调的词语作为漫画家的提示。 例如,在一幅漫画中,一个人穿着兔子装去上班,该工具提供了“兔子”和 “汤”(源于与“套装”一词的不协调性)这两个词。参与试点研究的一名参与者写出了这个标题:“我说的是兔子汤,不是兔子套装。”《纽约客》漫画说明大赛的获奖说明是:“这不仅仅是亨德森。公司解雇了整个兔子部门。” Judy Kay教授表示,这种方式意味着我们可以解释人工智能的工作原理: “随着人工智能在我们生活中发挥更大作用,我们的团队希望创造这样一个工具,让人们感到掌控在自己手中。” (Translated by Cynthia Song) | 