Technology has brought us so many wonderful and necessary things, and so it’s only right that a computer should know when to respond with “That’s what she said” at an opportune moment.

We all have a friend who tries and fails to emulate Michael Scott of The Office with the TWSS comment, so this might be particular galling to those failed jokesters. Forbes reports that two computer scientists at the University of Washington have made a breakthrough in natural language programming with a computer program that is pretty darn good at replying “That’s what she said” at just the right time.

You might be like, “Who needs a computer to do what I can do?” First of all, you’re not as funny as you think you are, and second, this breakthrough involves some complicated computer science, given that the computer program must be able to navigate cultural context and other factors not easily recognized by a nonhuman.

The system used to program their “TWSS” is called Double Entendre via Noun Transfer, or DEviaNT for short. Cute, right? You give it a sentence, then it figures out whether it’ll be funny to respond with TWSS. It was trained using twssstories.com, where users have provided TWSS jokes, and also non-entendre material.

Overall, DEviaNT responded with “TWSS” about 72% of the time, which is probably better than that non-funny pal of yours, who never knows how to do it right. THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!

We can only imagine what fun this will be when applied to practical products, perhaps enabling thousands of unfunny people to achieve a level of humor they never before dreamed of.

A Computer That Knows When To Say That’s What She Said [Forbes]

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