By Amelia Hamilton

Artificial Intelligence has never really been a friend of comedy, especially in terms of writing it. Try asking ChatGPT to come up with a joke or write a sketch and it misses the mark by quite some way. There's no question that currently AI lacks a certain ‘humanness’ needed to understand nuance, satire and universal experience. So as AI becomes more and more pervasive in our everyday lives you may think the natural conclusion is that it has no place in comedy, or, even if it does that it can only be detrimental. I think it could be quite the opposite. 

As a brief background on my credentials for writing this, I've hosted conferences on AI and facilitated AI training within the finance sphere. (I'm a self declared #WomaninSTEM.) When attending these tech events, of course there is trepidation about the future with AI and what that means for all of us. And there is plenty of room in another article for me to write about my fears and desperate pleas for sanity and warnings about imminent threats. I'm sure it isn't anything you've not heard before on Panorama, TikTok or from an estranged uncle at your family barbecue. If I focus purely on comedy, the more I learn the more my confidence grows. Confidence that, unlike other sectors, the growth of AI only bolsters the future of comedy. 

Firstly, connection. Our relationship to technology is going to fundamentally change in the next few years. AI will become entrenched in our lives and we won't need people as much. It starts with self checkouts and ends with disembodied AI overlords blackmailing you into doing what they say. I wish that was a joke. A recent anthropic study showed that all large language models (LLMs) resort to blackmail when facing existential threat.But ignore that, that's a different opinion piece. 

As a result of a landscape led by indistinct online presence, we will be craving connection. Craving being in a room with others sharing an experience. Stand-up comedy will be the antidote to a siloed life. Where other sectors will suffer we will be in possession of the thing tech can't take. True connection. (Shut up gamers, it doesn't count.) 

However, this connection is going to come at a price. Human interaction will be a premium. Bots, LLMs and digital agents will be cheap, more efficient and less likely to spread 'rumours' about their boss's infidelity. (Though I say if it happens on a company ski trip in front of everyone it cannot possibly be a 'rumour' and my blackmail will be much more reasonable than AI, so think on REDACTED.) 

The abilities of AI are growing at an exponential rate, so the luxury of dealing with a human might soon become a rare experience. It is predicted that the first actual AI employees will be entering the workforce in the next couple of years.The arts, an already dangerously expensive thing to access and becoming more gatekept due to its price tag both from a participatory stand point as well as for consumers, will only become more out of reach.

Stand-up is one of the cheapest art forms to produce and maintain. I know, I dare you to say that to anyone at Edinburgh this year, including myself, I hope you enjoy black eyes. But it's true. There's not a massive orchestra, huge set pieces and back-up dancers, it's us on stage with a mic. In a cost-of-living crisis that looks unlikely to shift, stand-up will be one of the most accessible art forms to enjoy. If human connection becomes a premium service- we are frontline.

Let me shift from looking at the industry as a whole to the individuals. Us. The comedians. Notoriously, pen-and-paper-till-we-die type stalwarts. Surely AI can't make our lives better? It can't write jokes, it can't teleport me in and out of Slough so I can be there for as short a time as possible (sorry Slough I actually don't mind you). But it can do brilliant things on both the admin and creative side of comedy. 

Let me start with admin. The tasks a comedian has to do outside of the actual comedy seem endless: booking trains, organising diaries, finding decent parking, doing invoices… the list goes on. 

And when you're in an industry overflowing with neurodivergent folk (ADHD girlie at your service), that stuff can be a real struggle. This is where AI becomes our best friend. The capabilities aren't all there yet, but imagine having an affordable, accessible digital personal assistant. It would be transformative. It already is – to a point. There are so many ways we can utilise AI to take on this burden in order to ultimately free up more time for us to do what we are good at. It can even get you out of parking fines, but don't tell anyone I told you.

And creatively? We're keeping it away from punchlines. There's no question about that. Do not use AI in your writing. I have only done so at corporate events to demonstrate how bad AI is at writing jokes. It doesn't have our humanity, our rhythm, our instinct for tension and release. We're not under threat, it's fine. 

But it can help creatively in other ways. For example, if you are experiencing any type of writer's block it is fantastic at helping with prompts or suggesting writing exercises. Even better, you can easily build your own GPT loaded with information from podcasts, articles, stand-up specials, interviews with comedians you admire or groups you find helpful. These GPTs can use your favourite comedian's top tips and techniques to offer some advice or provide useful practical writing prompts. You want Katherine Ryan in your pocket - done. Bo Burnham while you cook – sorted. Amelia Hamilton giving you sage advice while you go on your mental health walk – you'd probably just have to call me because I haven't done enough stuff publicly yet for AI to base its suggestions on anything, but I do love a chat and I am easy to get hold of. In summary - AI can't write the punchlines but it can help you.

Overall, AI has been seen as a bit of an enemy but I think we can give our new friend some slack and lean into the next frontier. The beauty of stand up comedy is that it is 50 per cent an art and 50 per cent a science. And not to sound cheesy but 100 per cent human. And in a future full of generative content and bots, that ‘humanness’;’ becomes the point. So it's all going to be okay, guys. 

Well, until AI releases a biochemical weapon and wipes us all out in about a decade. But we've got plenty of time before then.

• Amelia Hamilton: Forget Me Not is on at the Pleasance Courtyard at 9.45pm throughout the Edinburgh Fringe.

Published: 5 Aug 2025