"If an AI simulates a popstar and starts gigging...has she passed the Touring Test?" There’s more techno-gags like that at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe
Lead off by this Guardian piece, we are happy to regale you with the meeting of the worlds of comedy and AI, by way of acts appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Belt up (or bolt in)…
London-based comic Peter Bazely [above pic] confessed he turned to bots after being “out of ideas”. He asked AI for help in creating a “relatable” show at the Laughing Horse venue. As a result he plans to play a straight man to computer comic AI Jesus”.
Tickets here [Ed. note: there already is an AI Jesus, to which you can put questions, on the Twitch network.]
Appearing at the Gilded Balloon, Deep Mind researcher Piotr Mirowski has founded an improv-meets-AI theatre company called Improbotics. The point is not to use humans to showcase AI”, says Mirowski: “instead we use AI, demonstrating its obvious limitations, to showcase human creativity, ingenuity and support on the stage.”
Here’s RoboBingo, from Foxdog Studios: “Performers Lloyd Henning and Pete Sutton are television consultants with a history of working with interactive technology.
“They plan to ask their audience to guide the antics on stage with their phones, controlling the outcome via a robotic ball picker or simply by voting to ban someone from winning.”
Colleen Lavin: Do the Robots Think I'm Funny? “Colleen constantly fails captcha tests and has often been accused of being more machine than human. She is freaked out by AI so she built a robot to determine if she is funny. She doesn't understand her logic either. The Chicago comedian/sentient ray of sunshine has training from Second City and iO theatres. Her Fringe debut is a sharp gossip-filled show about heroism, insecurity, and the ever-present fear of being replaced by a robot. Expect salacious gossip, baffling technology and unrelenting optimism. Come to laugh, stay to impress future robot overlords.”
And more:
Tom Ballard: It Is I. “Humanity hooking its future to AI is just one of many strands covered in this powerhouse Australian comic’s show – and yes, that does included a gag written by ChatGPT.” Tickets here.
Courtney Pauroso: Vanessa 5000: “LA clown Courtney Pauroso returns as sex robot Vanessa5000, who – over the course of her product demonstration – grows increasingly conflicted about technology, modernity and her own existence. Artificially intelligent. Genuinely stupid. ChatGPT ain't got nothing on Vanessa5000”. Tickets here
The Guardian piece quotes Donald Michie, who set up an Artificial Intelligence lab in the city of Edinburgh sixty years ago [see this piece from Pat Kane], as saying in 1968 that “along with question-answering services, which will allow us to inquire about the restaurants in our locality or politics in Paraguay, will come the games opponent, the puzzle setter and the quiz master”. Just missed out on “comedian’s stooge” there...