Who Needs A SarcMark When Your Computer Can Just Tell You When Someone's Being Sarcastic?

from the technology-to-the-rescue dept

Technology: the cause and the solution to all our problems. We've previously covered the attempt to create a proprietary fee-required sarcasm punctuation mark called the SarcMarc (which appears to just be a Hebrew letter), as well as its more sarcastic and open competition called the Open Sarcasm project. Clearly, the world is begging for better notification for when sarcasm occurs.

Apparently, some feel that the answer is to throw technology at the problem, rather than requiring explicit punctuation or markup. Some researchers in Israel (perhaps trying to take back the Hebrew letter the SarcMarc folks copied) have created a system that can automatically (mostly) recognize when someone's Twitter message is meant to be sarcastic (some of the time). So, go ahead and rejoice. We may soon reach the day when you will never again be fooled by missed sarcasm.
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Filed Under: sarcasm, sarcasm detector


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 4:26am

    So what now?

    Amazing. So Jews again prove their place in the world, and again it seems they can't cure cancer.

    But why did they close the California Pizzza Kitchen? I'm still waiting for an answer there.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 5:11am

    Any sarcastic comment on a forum is also followed by a couple more from people who just didn't get it. How is a computer program supposed to be able to accurately determine sarcasm when the general populous cannot?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Sneeje (profile), 21 May 2010 @ 5:15am

    Mike, I don't think this was created for the purpose of using tech to recognize sarcasm, so much as it was created for the purpose of seeing if it was possible (I don't know, just speculating). The fields of cognitive science and artificial intelligence are mostly driven forward by small steps like this. It seems like a nice, well-bounded problem to tackle with an experiment.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Mike, 21 May 2010 @ 5:35am

    Re:

    Is your argument that computers cant do anything better or more accurately than a human? Hmmm... yes... please excuse me as I modify a word document in my mind :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    froyo, 21 May 2010 @ 5:36am

    Re:

    Were you being sarcastic?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Peet McKimmie (profile), 21 May 2010 @ 5:54am

    Re:

    AFAIK it is intended for use when aggregating "Customer reviews" on sites such as Amazon, where a clearly sarcastic comment will often show up as a 5-star review to a search spider.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 6:48am

    "... as well as it's more sarcastic and open competition called the Open Sarcasm project."
    Extra apostrophe!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    Sneeje (profile), 21 May 2010 @ 6:59am

    Re: Re:

    @froyo, no, and perhaps I'm being too generous. I explored those fields in college and this was exactly the sort of thing that would be tried, simply to test out the ability of algorithms to identify linguistic complexity.

    But as Peet says, none of that could be true, this could have been someone's application of technology for its own sake, not for any academic reason.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 7:16am

    i never heard of these idiots until they were on techdirt. mike, are you part owner of this stuff? you of all people should know the effects of discussing them at all.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Pixelation, 21 May 2010 @ 7:22am

    I guess I will have to develop undetectable sarcasm to escape the notice of our digital overlords.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 8:30am

    Re:

    I never heard of ^this^ idiot until he was on Techdirt.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    GrokIt, 21 May 2010 @ 8:32am

    hmmm . .

    This is an important development.




    (if you can't tell when someone is being sarcastic then you have a real problem)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 8:42am

    I bet someone is gonna patent this. You know, to promote innovation and all that.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    David T, 21 May 2010 @ 9:54am

    Over-engineering the solution...

    At the end of a sarcastic remark, the person making the comment can type, "/sarcasm" (or /s, to make it short).

    Problem solved.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Misterease, 21 May 2010 @ 10:19am

    A sarcasm detector, that's a real useful invention.
    (Sarcasm detector explodes)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    #captainobvious, 21 May 2010 @ 11:36am

    Captain No Pants IN SPAAAACE

    I thought this was about

    "ICWSM – A Great Catchy Name: Semi-Supervised Recognition of Sarcastic Sentences in Online Product Reviews"

    If you don't know what it is, Google it.

    I'm glad Mike writes articles about the Twitterscape.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 21 May 2010 @ 12:38pm

    Re:

    Mike, I don't think this was created for the purpose of using tech to recognize sarcasm, so much as it was created for the purpose of seeing if it was possible

    I know... I was just joking. Badly, apparently. :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2010 @ 12:54pm

    Next up to solve: Poe's law! Good Luck!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 21 May 2010 @ 9:18pm

    Proposed Sarcasm Markup

    >

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 21 May 2010 @ 9:19pm

    Re: Proposed Sarcasm Markup

    Your comment system screwed that up. It should have been

    <![SARCASM[ ... this is how you do it ... ]]>

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. icon
    Sneeje (profile), 22 May 2010 @ 8:04am

    Re: Re:

    Sorry, I see now. I think that's on me, not you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2010 @ 10:23pm

    Re: Re:

    So, would that computer program be able to detect your sarcasm?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2010 @ 10:28pm

    Re: Re: Proposed Sarcasm Markup

    how the heck did you manage a greater and less sign on techdirt. I've tried, even with the Html exception rules, and failed. Let me see the source

    < >

    Testing

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2010 @ 10:28pm

    Re: Re: Re: Proposed Sarcasm Markup

    Wow, I actually got it to work. Cool, thanks.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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