This past week in class, we focused a lot on nonverbal communication behaviors. One type of nonverbal behavior that was talked about in class was para language. Examples of para language are tone of voice, the speed in which you speak, accent, and sarcasm. Based on my article, I will be specifically focusing on sarcasm. Sarcasm is defined as the “use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say especially in order to insult someone, to show irritation, or to be funny”. I found an article online called ‘Why Can’t Robots Understand Sarcasm?’ by Kevin Zawacki, about why artificial intelligence does not detect sarcasm. Robots are capable of doing everything we want them to do except be humorous, and when we do communicate with them in a humorous way by using sarcasm, the robot’s response is so ‘dry’, that the response is a joke in itself.
According to Missy Cummings, an associate professor at MIT studying human interaction with systems, “You could do all the machine learning in the world in the world on the spoken word, but sarcasm is often in tone, words, and facial expressions. Sarcasm has a lot of nonverbal cues.” This goes back to what we learned about in class this week, as many of the ways we communicate are nonverbal. I completely agree with Cummings, as sarcasm is a concept some people can’t grasp or understand, not just robots. Whenever I have used Siri on my phone and said something ‘sarcastic’, she never picks up that what I’m trying to say to her, means the opposite. Siri’s response to sarcasm is never what we typically want to hear. I think it’d be interesting to see how scientists would even program robots to pick up sarcasm as the cues are mostly nonverbal. When using sarcasm, you usually need to read someone’s face or tone, something that robots do not have access to.
Cummings goes on to say that engineers may not be the best equipped to understand sarcasm and transform it into a code; so this will require help from comedians. I agree with this statement as those that specialize in robots may not have the best ‘grasp’ on sarcasm, so getting ‘help’ from comedians will be their best bet. On the opposite side of the spectrum, some people just aren't interested in having a ‘sarcastic’ robot. According to Sebastian Thrun, a robotics expert, “The last thing I want my robot to be is sarcastic. I want them to pragmatic and reliable, just like my dishwasher.” I somewhat agree with Thrun’s opinion as I can understand why one would just their robot to act as a machine that's does as it’s told, which has always been a robots purpose. This article puts things in perspective for me, as I've never thought that scientists would get as far as possibly creating a robot that understands sarcasm. At the same time, I think it’d be interesting to have a robot that could grasp such a complex concept, as it adds a spin to things, especially with technology evolving so fast in this day and age. Cummings estimates that robots who will understand sarcasm could be in our world, within a time frame of 20 years.
Link to article: http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2015/01/why-cant-robots-understand-sarcasm/103506/
According to Missy Cummings, an associate professor at MIT studying human interaction with systems, “You could do all the machine learning in the world in the world on the spoken word, but sarcasm is often in tone, words, and facial expressions. Sarcasm has a lot of nonverbal cues.” This goes back to what we learned about in class this week, as many of the ways we communicate are nonverbal. I completely agree with Cummings, as sarcasm is a concept some people can’t grasp or understand, not just robots. Whenever I have used Siri on my phone and said something ‘sarcastic’, she never picks up that what I’m trying to say to her, means the opposite. Siri’s response to sarcasm is never what we typically want to hear. I think it’d be interesting to see how scientists would even program robots to pick up sarcasm as the cues are mostly nonverbal. When using sarcasm, you usually need to read someone’s face or tone, something that robots do not have access to.
Cummings goes on to say that engineers may not be the best equipped to understand sarcasm and transform it into a code; so this will require help from comedians. I agree with this statement as those that specialize in robots may not have the best ‘grasp’ on sarcasm, so getting ‘help’ from comedians will be their best bet. On the opposite side of the spectrum, some people just aren't interested in having a ‘sarcastic’ robot. According to Sebastian Thrun, a robotics expert, “The last thing I want my robot to be is sarcastic. I want them to pragmatic and reliable, just like my dishwasher.” I somewhat agree with Thrun’s opinion as I can understand why one would just their robot to act as a machine that's does as it’s told, which has always been a robots purpose. This article puts things in perspective for me, as I've never thought that scientists would get as far as possibly creating a robot that understands sarcasm. At the same time, I think it’d be interesting to have a robot that could grasp such a complex concept, as it adds a spin to things, especially with technology evolving so fast in this day and age. Cummings estimates that robots who will understand sarcasm could be in our world, within a time frame of 20 years.
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