Computer Program Detects Sarcasm!

[Twiglet]

Yes, it's true!

Apparantly a computer program has been developed which can reliably identify the use of sarcasm online, and it actually works by analysing the language. Which seems a bit over-complicated, since all it really needs to do is run an IP traceroute to see if the author is British or Australian, and then flag every post....

ABC Science carries the story

Computer program recognises online sarcasm

Researchers have developed a computer program capable of identifying online sarcasm, although it is a long way from becoming a prosthetic for people with poor social skills. Oren Tsur, a computer scientist at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem is discussing his work at a meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Washington, D.C. this week. Sarcasm is a useful way to blunt the impact of criticism but people can often miss it when it's delivered online, where there are no contextual hints or social cues.

To cut through the confusion, Tsur and colleagues developed a computer program that can identify sarcasm in online communities with an accuracy rate of about 80%.

//

Set off by a joke

Funny enough, Tsur's attempt to program a sarcasm detector started as a joke. When he was a university freshman, he received an email that thanked him for his previous contributions to an annual conference and asked him to be that year's program chair. The email was clearly intended for someone else, but Tsur thought it was funny, so he responded with what he thought was an obviously sarcastic tone. His reply was taken seriously. "They allowed me to postpone the deadline for submission and asked me what I was working on," says Tsur. "I wrote back that I was working on detecting irony in email. They didn't get that either." Since then, Tsur's interest in sarcasm had turned serious.

For the full article. click here

[Feck]

Wow that's a useful program .

[Trolldor]

Development of the century!

[FBM]

I'm going to rush right out and get me one of them bad boys.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

The OP was sarcastic, right?

[Twiglet]

The OP was sarcastic, right?

I love how this invites a simple answer...

[JimC]

I want to see a computer program join Ratz, then get into a huff when we derail its threads...

[colubridae]

I told Mrs C.

She said

"Yes but can they build a computer program which will put the toilet seat down and put CDs back in their cases"

Can it detect irony?

[Rum]

This is the bestest thing evar!

[Feck]

I told Mrs C.

She said

"Yes but can they build a computer program which will put the toilet seat down and put CDs back in their cases"

Can it detect irony?

[lpetrich]

The StupidFilter is much the same thing, designed to look for inane one-liners like "OMG WTF!!!".

However, its live demo is now broken.

[JimC]

The StupidFilter is much the same thing, designed to look for inane one-liners like "OMG WTF!!!".

However, its live demo is now broken.

Shit, I'm glad it's broken!

Unleashed on Rationalia, it would leave nothing but a wasteland! :twisted:

[Pappa]

This is pretty cool stuff. If all AI bots that interact with humans in the future have a sarcasm detection module, they'll be much more useful. AI that interacted with humans in the UK would be less than useless if it took everything at face value. Some people I know only respond sarcastically... to anything and everything.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

This is pretty cool stuff. If all AI bots that interact with humans in the future have a sarcasm detection module, they'll be much more useful. AI that interacted with humans in the UK would be less than useless if it took everything at face value. Some people I know only respond sarcastically... to anything and everything.

Really.