---
title: "This AI Is Spitting Out Coherent, Almost-Funny Dad Puns"
description: "An artificial intelligence-powered pun generator created by Stanford Researchers attempts to prove that a neural network can have a sense of humor, too."
date: "2019-05-06"
modified: "2019-05-06"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-pun-generator"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "humor"
  - "machine learning"
  - "the digest"
---

# This AI Is Spitting Out Coherent, Almost-Funny Dad Puns

![An artificial intelligence-powered pun generator created by Stanford Researchers attempts to prove that a neural network can have a sense of humor, too.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ai-pun-generator.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Pun Generator

Imagine you tell your dad something about a negotiator, or a car. Just enough material for him to land an appalling pun:

*That’s because \[the\] negotiator got my car back to me in one peace.*

But this is the work of no dad. Instead, it was created by a pun-generating artificial intelligence, created by Stanford researchers to prove that a neural network can have a sense of humor, too. The results were hilarious, but not always in the way you'd expect. Some of these knee-slappers were barely coherent — but they might provide a preview of what happens when AI starts to become funny.

## HumorBot

A preprint of [the research](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.06828.pdf>), published in the journal *arXiv* last month, describes how the researchers fed pairs of homophones — like "two" and "too" — to a neural network.

The results often had an almost-there quality that'll be familiar to close watchers of AI-generated text. Here's an example: *Even from the outside, I could tell that he’d already lost some wait.*

## Not Funny

There are plenty of challenges that remain.

Neural networks "are rule-abiding to a fault, and that makes them terrible jokers," [writes *Wired*](<https://www.wired.com/story/comedian-machine-ai-learning-puns/>).

In an organized pun-off against competing human jokesters, the machine was rated to be funnier than a human just ten percent of the time.

"While we improve beyond current techniques, we are still far from human-generated puns," concludes the prewrite. Neural networks tend to conflate creativity with nonsense — which remains a "big challenge in humor."

**READ MORE:** [The Comedian Is in the Machine. AI Is Now Learning Puns](<https://www.wired.com/story/comedian-machine-ai-learning-puns/>) \[*Wired*\]

**More on machine learning:** *[Machine Learning Is Giving Retro Games Cutting-Edge Graphics](<https://futurism.com/machine-learning-making-retro-games-new>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)