
Roboticst at OSU uses performing arts to make robots more social - rbanffy
https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2018/08/oregon_state_professor_working.html
======
AndrewKemendo
This is now a trend. The goal of humanizing robots and AI is really
interesting, and I think is merited as we nudge ourselves toward more
ubiquitous human-machine interaction.

Comedian: [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/arts/ai-comedy-
artificial...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/arts/ai-comedy-artificial-
intelligence-piotr-mirowski.html)

Improv:[https://www.ualberta.ca/newtrail/featurestories/2018/may/hav...](https://www.ualberta.ca/newtrail/featurestories/2018/may/have-
you-heard-the-one-about-the-robot-comedian)

Sophia:[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(robot)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_\(robot\))

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Isamu
I realized recently that although getting robots to understand humor is a hard
problem, getting robots to develop stand-up comedy is tractable.

The reason is stand-up comedians have to develop their act empirically. They
try out material that they think might be funny, and they try it out in front
of an audience. They go through a process of constant trial and error. This is
in contrast to what most audiences think happens.

~~~
sgillen
Yes but being a human they already have a pretty good idea what might be funny
for the audience they want to perfmorm for.

So basically I think a computer would need a lot more trial and error than the
human does, and I’m not sure a good way to allow for that magnitude of trial
and error without having some other computer that has a sense of humor be the
judge.

~~~
Isamu
No, you'd want to bootstrap the process with some kind of machine learning to
categorize humor and non-humor. It would have poor accuracy, no doubt, but it
would be better than random generation.

I agree that it would be less efficient than in humans but with learning it
might be able to converge on a set of strategies, possibly "cheats" that are
likely to produce laughs.

~~~
lainga
You may converge on an "air-humping cheetah" style cheat, like repeating the
word "Poop!" over and over...

~~~
quirkot
Are you suggesting that catch phrases _aren 't_ hilarious? YOWZA! [looks at
camera, smiles]

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al_ramich
First time seeing the 'inaccessible if coming from the EU' message. Wonder if
there are any stats out there to break down how many non-EU websites are
opting to stop the traffic vs complying with the GDPR.

~~~
rbanffy
And, worst, they use the 451 status when it's them who don't want to comply
with a privacy protection law.

Do they think anyone will believe the EU is censoring US websites?

~~~
al_ramich
interesting that if you believe "David" giving an interview to the Sun, there
could be fines even if websites prevent access to the EU citizens

[https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/6375884/gdpr-fines-websites-
bl...](https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/6375884/gdpr-fines-websites-blocked-
businesses-law-legal/)

~~~
rbanffy
I think that, if real, which I doubt, is a hard to enforce rule and an unfair
one. If you are unwilling to protect the privacy of your users, you can still
serve your website to people who live in countries that don't mandate such
protections.

My problem is with the misuse of a political statement. The EU is not
censoring anyone. It's protecting its residents. Shame on governments that
don't do the same.

~~~
al_ramich
Did a bit more looking into this and it seems to be the case. The issue is
with organisations that have historically captured info about EU citizens
which even if they stopped access to new EU users, still makes them need to
comply with GDPR. So preventing access might also need to be supported by
removing any EU user data from your system. Discussed in detail below.

[https://www.econsultancy.com/blog/70065-gdpr-which-
websites-...](https://www.econsultancy.com/blog/70065-gdpr-which-websites-are-
blocking-visitors-from-the-eu-2)

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TeMPOraL
EU-accessible version, I assume it's roughly equivalent to the submitted link:
[https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-
forest/index.ssf/2018/08/...](https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-
forest/index.ssf/2018/08/oregon_state_professor_working.html).

~~~
dang
Thanks, we changed to that from
[https://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/roboticst-at-osu-
use...](https://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/roboticst-at-osu-uses-
performing-arts-to-make-robots-
more/article_5a3c7dd6-3af4-5a92-8dda-f016a0dd425d.html).

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trillic
"OSU" is not descriptive.

Oklahoma State University

Oregon State University

Ohio State University

~~~
russell_h
That headline appeared in a local newspaper in Corvallis, the town where
Oregon State University is located. In that context it's pretty clear, but
agreed that on HN it's very ambiguous.

As an Oregon State University graduate I assumed it was one of the other OSUs
until I saw the domain.

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seangg
Inaccessible in the EU

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xyproto
Not accessable in the EU.

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ajmurmann
"ANSWER A SURVEY QUESTION TO CONTINUE READING THIS CONTENT" Really?

