Documentary:
“Human or Machine: A Behind the Scenes Look at AI and Improv with Improbotics“, by Holly Bartolo for the Phoenix Remix, 25 June 2021.

Press coverage:
For coverage about Improbotics, go to https://improbotics.org/press.

“Stand-up comedy ‘written by bots’ is still one big joke“, by Tom Williams for ABC News, 3 August 2021.

“A Robot Walks Into a Bar. But Can It Do Improv Comedy?“, by Alex Marshall for the New York Times, 8 August 2018.

“So a Computer Walks Into a Bar“, by James Geary for the Wall Street Journal, 21 September 2018.

“Improbotics: Bringing Machine Intelligence Into Improvised Theatre“, by Ingrid Fadelli for Tech Xplore, 20 September 2018.

“AI tries bad improv to trick people into thinking it is human“, by Frank Swain for The New Scientist, 14 September 2018.

“Hello World Canada: The Rise of AI“, by Ashlee Vance for Bloomberg, shown on 23 May 2018.

“Robot’s terrible jokes are a new test of machine intelligence“, by Douglas Heaven for The New Scientist, 7 December 2017.

“A.L.Ex the chatbot is learning to be human by doing improv comedy“, by Danny Paez for Inverse, 1 December 2017.

“Will A Robot Steal My Job?“, by Anne-Marie Tomchak and Animo TV, shown on 13 November 2017 on RTE One.

“Meet the smart robots with artificial irreverence“, by Oliver Moody for The Sunday Times, 11 March 2017 (pdf version).

“Top 40 Under 40: Kory Mathewson“, by Catherine Barlott for Avenue Edmonton, November 2016.

Reviews:

“AI Art Online”, by Luba Elliott, December 2018. AI Art Online is a collection of art, music and design created using machine learning, submitted to the NeurIPS Workshop on Machine Learning for Creativity and Design. The online gallery was curated by Luba Elliott.

Edmonton Fringe review of “Artificial Intelligence Improvisation”, by Josh Marcellin, 18 August 2018. “This Rapid Fire Theatre collaboration pairs veteran local improviser, and U of A Computing Science PhD candidate, Kory Mathewson with Piotr Mirowski, a brilliant artificial intelligence researcher by way of Poland, Paris and New York—also, there’s A.L.Ex, an advanced AI with speech-recognition and a vocabulary built on more than 100,000 films. It’s almost as much fun hearing the researcher-performers explain the science behind A.L.Ex with undiluted glee as it is watching the AI come up with absurdly, often dark, non sequiturs for the humans to riff on. Boundary-pushing science plus talented meatbags equals a standout improv Fringe experience.”

Broadway Baby‘s review of “Artificial Intelligence Improvisation”, by Alex McCord, 5 June 2018.  “[they] create a unique comedy experience with their machine companion. Veering wildly between moments of cringe-inducing strangeness and total hilarity, it is a show that must be seen to be understood. It sounds exceptionally strange. It is exceptionally strange. […] The genius of the robot is in the way it addresses the flaws of improv comedies and gives them a reason to go to weird places and say weird things. One brilliant set piece is when they put the robot avatar aside and bring up an audience member and make them say whatever dialogue the program generates. This performance was ridiculous. […] Kory and Piotr are perhaps scientists first and actors second. However, the idea here is magnificent. There are so many laughs to be found with this formula and, with improvements both from our scientists and A.L.Ex, this could be revolutionary.”

“Will Robots Replace Stand-Up Comedians?“, by Rachel Rosenthal, 29 November 2017. “I met Kory Mathewson a few years ago in Portland OR, when we were both performing in the Stumptown Improv Festival […] A really smart and talented improviser who is also a genius computer engineer person […] – he is always working on a crazy technology project. And his latest deep dive? An improvising Robot. […] Ok so a Robot isn’t going to take my job— yet. […] At the end of the day, Piotr reminded me that audiences go to the theater and live comedy (or movies for that matter) to see and experience human connection. And that’s a relief because that’s certainly something I can do that A.L.Ex cannot. So… I guess A.L.Ex won’t be taking over teaching my classes any time soon (plug! New Hip Hop Improv Classes open for registration now!)  But, I won’t be mean to A.L.Ex if I see it at DCM. I won’t pre-judge it. I may even ask it to do a quick set at The PIT sometime. I know I’ll be funnier.”

“Artificial Intelligence Improvisation at the Etcetera Theatre“, View from the gods, 31 July 2017. “The most fascinating aspect of Artificial Intelligence Improvisation is that despite the characters being make believe, the technology behind this show is genuine. […] Gimmicky? Maybe a little. However it’s also very cool and a lot of fun to observe. […] they’re very well received by an enthusiastic audience […] Slightly ramshackle and prone to system error, but thoroughly enjoyable.”

“Artificial Intelligence Improvisation“, by Kate Pettigrew for London Pub Theatres, 1 August 2017. “It is always interesting when something different is tackled in theatre and Artificial Intelligence Improvisation does just that.”

Albert and A.L.Ex selected at “Comedians to watch in 2017“, interviewed by Holly Bartolo for The Phoenix Remix (Comedy, Music and everything else in between). Our discussion was about building the artificial intelligence behind A.L.Ex, handling technical disasters on stage, finding inspiration in public solitude and inspiration from excited friends, my ongoing collaboration and ambitious projects with Kory Mathewson and the growing UK improv scene.

Contact:

HumanMachine actively tweets (@PiotrImprov and @korymath) and posts show updates @humanmachineimprov and @ImproboticsLtd (FB) and @Improbotics (Twitter). If you want to stay in touch or book a show with HumanMachine, you can also write to us at:
contact [symbol that translates as "monkey" in Polish] improbotics.org
or contact us through this form: