Tech talks: Artificial intelligence takes on humans in new improv show

Robots can deliver room service, conduct funeral ceremonies and lead workouts for the elderly. But can they tell a joke? Edmonton audiences can find out, starting next weekend, when local improv artists go head-to-head with artificial intelligence to see who is funnier. Called Improbotics, the show kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Rapid Fire Theatre (located within the Citadel Theatre at 9828 101A Ave.) and runs Saturday nights from Jan. 12 until Feb. 2. The event is the brainchild of local improv artist and University of Alberta computer science PhD student Kory Mathewson, who has been performing improv for 15 years but began to connect theatre and artificial intelligence about three years ago as part of an improv group known as HumanMachine. HumanMachine consists of Mathewson, a colleague named Piotr Mirowski (an artificial intelligence researcher in London, England, who will not be at the upcoming Edmonton shows) and a piece of equipment known as A.L.Ex, which stands for Artificial Language Experiment -- a computer system that can do speech recognition, improvised dialogue and voice synthesis.