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Google hires world's worst gag writers to train AI

by on11 October 2016


What is the deal with bridges?

Google has decided that its new AI Home assistant needs to have a sense of humour, but unfortunately it thinks that the best people to teach it are some of the least funny people in America.

Google Home wants its humour to be real and less canned, so the search engine outfit has hired some gag writers to make it funnier.  However instead of hiring those with a real sense of humour it has looked to people who think they are funny instead.

The first port of call was the Onion whose gag writers think things are funny if they just make stuff up and call it satire.  This one trick pony style of humour is only funny when people think it is real and it falls completely short on what most Europeans call satire or funny.

The next port of call is Pixar Studios which is gentle family humour which is OK if you are sitting with your kids and don't want to feel embarrissed at laughing at something they don't get.

It could have been worse, they could have hired the script writers for the Tonight Show whose ability not to be funny is legendary. Yes, they were the guys that wrote the line "what is the deal about bridges". 

If Google wants its AI to be funny it needs to hire comics who make people laugh.  I would personally love a personal assistant who could deliver lines with the cynical twisted brilliance of Frankie Boyle, the surrealness of Early Eddie Izzard or the sarcasm of Ben Elton. 

Google Home debuts this November, and the upcoming Google Pixel phone, arriving in stores and online on October 20, is the first Google product featuring the new Assistant voice service.

Last modified on 11 October 2016
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