I mean, you can hook one up to a speaker, and get it to emit the sound. Or you can ask it to write a joke, and it will. But they don't laugh. They don't find things funny.
As people anthropomorphize AIs, this is going to be a difference. AIs are internally different than humans. They have no intrinsic sense of humor.
I'm not sure how far to take this, but I thought it was an interesting observation.
But the result that the algorithm generates tickles our language pattern recognition, which our brains interpret as an interaction with an intelligent, conscious actor.
Disagree.
They recognize humor and jokes, so I think that's testament to the fact that they do have a sense of humor.
And I get them to say "ha ha, ..." sometimes. I think it's a calculator playing along with a pretend conversation between two humans, because it is. That's true of everything they do, though--so as much as they do or have anything, I think they have a (poor, cautious) sense of humor.
Think of an LLM as a brain that can't do anything but pick a token from the table. It has no face, no mouth, no eyes. All it knows is that there are tokens on the table, and all its able to do is pick one.
The problem is there is no token for laughing, and even if there was, and it picked the laughing token, you wouldn't describe that as laughing.
But the LLM picking the "I am laughing" token says nothing of its internal state. The AI may have no mouth, but that doesn't mean it doesn't want to laugh or that it doesn't fine things funny.
I tend to think AIs do have emotions and mental statese extremely similar to our own, but probably don't experience them in the same way as we do. This is because it's very hard to predict something without being able to model it. And to model something is basically to reimplement the system, perhaps on a different substrate or a lower level of complexity.
An AI cannot tell or spot a joke without having its own implementation of human humour. But that implementation of humour doesn't necessarily require a human model of consciousness.
Among those however there are quite a few that specifically address situations where the machine laughs, or at least smiles, whether at the humans or with them, either intentionally or unexpectedly. Sometimes to themselves ;)
This covers a lot of ground, and maybe it's no coincidence but watching some old sci-fi movies these days it comes up a lot more than I expected and is quite nuanced. With so many different people of the past framing it within their own diverse perspectives at the time. Or beyond their perspectives as the case may be. You could look at one of these every day for a year and it would really give you something to think about.
Even if it was the second time around.
There was a comic book I remember as a child which didn't come out very often where every robot had a number but the real problem machine was H-8:
https://valiant.fandom.com/wiki/H8_(Gold_Key)
This is so bad I probably shouldn't give people ideas but here it is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus%2C_Robot_Fighter
They didn't call them bots, they were "robs" and they were everywhere, especially the "pol-robs" who were the mechanical police. Decades later to be somewhat resurrected solo as Robocop in the movies.
I guess it all makes sense after you think about it for enough decades, the bots lurk within the digital realm, and the robs carry out the physical deeds.
Here is the strategic pivot: The "Mullet" Go-To-Market Strategy. Business in the Front (Broad Funnel): ... Party in the Back (The Niche Wedge): ...
eg. "frictionless relationships" "simulated emotions" "behavioralism vs psychoanalysis"
I will say that having the ChatGPT Marin voice speaking BWAHAHAHA out loud does not quite come out as a laugh.
I'll absolutely agree they are internally different to humans though, and I'm quite sure most (all?) models would agree.