Botnik Studios
{{UDP|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox website
| name = Botnik Studios
| logo = File:Logo_of_the_company_Botnik_Studios.png
| url = {{url|http://www.botnik.org/}}
| type = Entertainment website
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2016}}Elio, Anthony. [https://innotechtoday.com/botnik/ "An Inside Look at Botnik Studios’ Absurd AI"] Innovation & Tech Today (February 8, 2019)
}}
Botnik Studios is an entertainment group developed to exhibit work created by the Botnik community, a writer's society of artists and developers who incorporate technology in the creation of comedy.{{cite web|last1=Flood|first1=Alison|title='He began to eat Hermione's family': bot tries to write Harry Potter book – and fails in magic ways|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/dec/13/harry-potter-botnik-jk-rowling|website=the Guardian|accessdate=22 January 2018|date=13 December 2017}} This content is published on the Botnik homepage.{{cite web|title=Botnik Augmented Content|url=http://about.botnik.org/|website=Botnik|accessdate=22 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125033246/http://about.botnik.org/|archive-date=25 January 2018|url-status=dead}}
Features
Botnik's main tool is a predictive text keyboard, similar to one used by a smartphone. It offers options of words to type based on what has been previously entered, meaning that if the tool has analyzed a body of text it will find combinations of words likely to be used by a particular author{{cite web|title=Botnik Studios|url=http://botnik.org/tutorial.html|website=botnik.org|accessdate=22 January 2018}} whose text has been 'scraped' by the system.{{cite podcast |host=The Cracked Podcast |title=How Predictive Text Gave Us A New Harry Potter Chapter |publisher=Cracked |date=22 January 2018|time=21:38 |url=http://www.cracked.com/podcast/how-predictive-text-gave-us-new-harry-potter-chapter/ |accessdate=22 January 2018 |quote=the mass crowd driven thing came in the last year. We modelled it after comedy writers groups }}
The result generally sounds almost authentic in that it is recognizable but ridiculous enough to be considered funny by readers.{{cite web|title=Truly creative A.I. is just around the corner. Here's why that's a big deal|url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/artificial-intelligence-creativity-future/|website=Digital Trends|accessdate=22 January 2018|date=5 January 2018}}
History
The program was developed by Jamie Brew, a former ClickHole and The Onion writer, and Bob Mankoff, who is humor editor at Esquire and former cartoon editor of The New Yorker.{{cite web|last1=Schuessler|first1=Jennifer|title=A Cartoonist Savors His Favorite Art for The New Yorker|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/arts/design/a-cartoonist-savors-his-favorite-art-for-the-new-yorker.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=22 January 2018|date=7 March 2017}}Elio, Anthony. [https://innotechtoday.com/botnik/ "An Inside Look at Botnik Studios’ Absurd AI"] Innovation & Tech Today (February 8, 2019)Raftery, Brian. [https://www.wired.com/story/botnik-ai-comedy-app/ "The Surreal Comedy Bot That's Turning AI Into LOL"] Wired (October 23, 2017) In August 2017 they were joined by computational scientist Elle O'Brien{{cite web|url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle-o-brien-2a4586100/?locale=zh_CN|title=Elle O'brien on Linkedin|accessdate=22 January 2018}} and creative developer Joseph Parker.{{cite web|last1=Berman|first1=Robby|title=A Bot Wrote a New Harry Potter Chapter, and It Is Utterly Crazy|url=http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/harry-potter-and-the-predictive-keyboards-tale|website=Big Think|date=14 December 2017 |accessdate=22 January 2018}} Brew and O'Brien are based in Seattle and Mankoff and Parker work in New York.{{cite web|title=Wherrelz : Startup Spotlight: Can a machine learn to laugh Botnik crosses a comedian with AI to find out : curated startup news|url=https://wherrelz.com/startups-startup-spotlight-can-a-machine-learn-to-laugh-botnik-crosses-a-comedian-with-ai-to-find-out-wherrelz.wits|website=wherrelz.com|accessdate=22 January 2018}}
In 2017 Botnik began referring to themselves as an open community,{{cite podcast |host=The Cracked Podcast |title=How Predictive Text Gave Us A New Harry Potter Chapter |publisher=Cracked |date=22 January 2018|time=17:10 |url=http://www.cracked.com/podcast/how-predictive-text-gave-us-new-harry-potter-chapter/ |accessdate=22 January 2018 |quote=the mass crowd driven thing came in the last year. We modelled it after comedy writers groups }} meaning Botnik users can download the predictive keypad, experiment with the tool and display their outcomes on the community page of the Botnik website.{{cite web|title=Startup Spotlight: Can a machine learn to laugh? Botnik crosses a comedian with AI to find out|url=https://www.geekwire.com/2017/botnik/|website=GeekWire|accessdate=22 January 2018|date=26 October 2017}} In July of that year they received a grant from the Amazon/Techstars Accelerator Program thanks to being a startup whose technology could realistically improve Amazon's smart speaker assistant, Alexa.{{cite web|title=A Former Clickhole Writer Made a 'Content Bot' That Will Probably Become My Boss|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/former-clickhole-writer-content-botnik-jamie-brew-bob-mankoff-ai-robot-take-my-job/|website=Motherboard|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en-us|date=12 October 2017}}
Botnik became better known when Zach Braff, the actor who plays J.D. on the medical comedy series Scrubs, shared a recording of himself reading a Scrubs-style monologue written by the Botnik system in December 2017.{{cite web|title=Zach Braff reprises his 'Scrubs' character to read a script written by an A.I.|url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/zach-braff-ai-script/|website=Digital Trends|accessdate=22 January 2018|date=19 December 2017}}
Botnik's Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash was ranked number four in the list of ten best internet moments in 2017 by The Guardian.{{cite web|last1=Wong|first1=Julia Carrie|author-link=Julia Carrie Wong |title=Ten genuinely great things the internet gave us in 2017, featuring baby hippos|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/28/best-internet-moments-2017|website=the Guardian|accessdate=22 January 2018|date=29 December 2017}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Comedy}}
{{Wikiquote}}
- {{Official website|http://www.botnik.org}}
Category:American companies established in 2016
Category:American comedy websites