Name: Silicon-based comedy
Uploaded: 2011-01-21T15:39:00Z
Duration: 5 min 47 s
Description: In this first-of-its-kind demo, Heather Knight introduces Data, a robotic stand-up comedian that does much more than rattle off one-liners -- it gathers audience feedback (using software co-developed with Scott Satkin and Varun Ramakrishna at CMU) and tunes its act as the crowd responds. Is this thing on?

In this first-of-its-kind demo, Heather Knight introduces Data, a robotic stand-up comedian that does much more than rattle off one-liners -- it gathers audience feedback (using software co-developed with Scott Satkin and Varun Ramakrishna at CMU) and tunes its act as the crowd responds. Is this thing on?

Silicon-based comedy

Innovation flourishes where entertainment and robotics intersect, as seen when a robot named Data performed stand-up comedy and adjusted its act live based on audience reactions. Each joke in Data's database is tagged by topic, length, and movement, allowing real-time adaptation. By blending dramatic arts with machine learning, this approach explores how robots can develop personality and emotional expressiveness. Audiences even coached the robot, shaping its comedic style and hinting at the future of human-robot connection.