Artificial intelligence has surpassed humans in creating funnier and more creative memes, according to a study published on arXiv and presented at the 30th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. Researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, LMU Munich, and TU Darmstadt tested the co-creative capabilities of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI's GPT-4o.
The study found that AI-generated memes scored higher on average in terms of humor, creativity, and shareability compared to those made by humans or human-AI collaborations. However, when looking at the top-performing memes, human-created ones were better in humor, while human-AI collaborations stood out in creativity and shareability.
The researchers suggest that AI's ability to recognize and replicate successful joke formats, as well as its training on vast volumes of internet data, contribute to its success in creating humorous content. However, AI may struggle to create truly original humor.
The study's findings have implications for the role of human creativity in the digital age. While AI can generate ideas and content, humans may still be needed to curate and refine the output. The researchers propose that instead of competing, AI and humans could work together to create better content, with AI generating ideas and humans selecting the best ones.
