It's a small, off-duty Czechoslovakian traffic warden.
Wow, great invention: Now AI eggheads teach machines how to be sarcastic using Reddit
Dealing with chatbots and virtual assistants can be so frustrating that it’s normal for humans to start getting snarky. Such run-ins would be a little more entertaining if the machines could give some of that sass back. Unfortunately, it’ll be awhile before that can happen since computers don’t really understand sarcasm at all …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 13th September 2018 05:34 GMT Nick Kew
Superhuman?
Computers have to follow what is being said by whom, the context of the conversation and often some real world facts to understand cultural references.
We on El Reg might aspire to all that, but many humans can keep it up consistently?
Cultural references? I'll get some of them (e.g. Pratchett); others (like things off the telly) are likely to go straight over my head. You (other commentard) will share some but not all of mine.
Real world facts? Fake news! Big grey areas there.
Context? Well, shouldn't the article have put AI expectations into the context of how real-life human intelligence looks? Sorry, weak example, I'm only human.
what is being said by whom? Misattribution is so mainstream it has a whole raft of sub-classes: honest confusion, the generic "they say", deliberate misrepresentation and spin, the strawman, the "Melanie Phillips translation", etc.
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Thursday 13th September 2018 07:29 GMT Dave 126
Re: Superhuman?
Indeed - my first post on this thread about a traffic warden is a cultural reference, one that is trivial for a computer to search for. Because it makes no sense in this context to any human who doesn't recognise it, it's also easy for a human to search for, but not all cultural references advertise themselves as such.
A human might write "We're going to need a bigger boat" (Jaws) or "life will find a way" ( Jurassic Park) a context where it makes sense in its own, so another human might miss that it is quote.
Then of course we have snow clones... We're going to need a bigger goat, self replicating resource consuming Von Neumann machines will find a way. Python? I hate Python!
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Thursday 13th September 2018 16:20 GMT Nick Kew
Re: Superhuman?
Indeed - my first post on this thread about a traffic warden is a cultural reference,
Indeed, I guessed it was: looks like the only way your post makes sense. Though it didn't seem important enough to google it, since the overhead for me is that little bit more than for an AI.
If I'd thought Reg readers needed me to spell out how it makes my point, I'd have ... well, I'd probably not care enough to participate here in the first place.
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:19 GMT onefang
Re: Superhuman?
"Cultural references? I'll get some of them (e.g. Pratchett); others (like things off the telly) are likely to go straight over my head. You (other commentard) will share some but not all of mine."
Sometimes the context tells me that something is a cultural reference that I've never seen before. Sometimes I even bother to search for it, in order to understand the commentard better. Other times I just assume humour / sarcasm, and move on.
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Thursday 13th September 2018 14:29 GMT User McUser
Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With!
"Dealing with chatbots and virtual assistants can be so frustrating that it’s normal for humans to start getting snarky. Such run-ins would be a little more entertaining if the machines could give some of that sass back" said the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation representative.
No wonder they were first against the wall...