Can AI Make Better Memes Than Humans?

We live in the age of social media and memes have become a common form of communication. Although they seem simple, it can be said that they are a very sophisticated method of communication: they can summarise even the most complex ideas in humorous formats. But can artificial intelligence create the same meme that ‘humans’ have created so far? Moreover, is it possible for AI to come up with a better one than us? In this article, we will seek answers to these questions. We will talk about AI’s capabilities in meme creation, compare this technology with human creativity, and discuss users’ perceptions of machine-generated content.

What Is a Meme?

Before we begin, however, a quick refresher for those who may have seen them before but don’t know exactly what they are. This term, even if most people are not aware of it, is a shortened form of the Greek word ‘mimema’ and means to express a certain idea in a humorous style using imitation. It is usually transferred from one person to another using social media and if it becomes popular enough, it becomes “viral”. Its distinguishing features are as follows:

• A meme almost always contains an image with a short text. There are no rules about the format of the text, but the content is always humorous.
• The picture and the text have to be interpreted together: otherwise, it will be difficult to understand the main idea.
• The memes follow trends closely and are influenced by cultural differences. A meme that is very popular in one country may not make any sense in another. (However, there are the ones that have become globally popular).
• It is possible to create memes about many different topics such as politics, the economy, finance, video games, and pop culture. Just by looking at the memes that were popular during a certain period, you can get a good idea of what the trends were during that period.

They are so common that they are even sold as NFTs. In other words, this digital communication format can even allow you to make money. For example, the NFT of ‘Disaster Girl’, one of the most famous memes, was sold for close to 600,000 USD.

AI Meme Creators

At the beginning of this article, we asked two questions, and one was: can AI create a meme? The answer is definitely yes because for quite some time now, there have been ‘AI meme generators’ online that you can use for this purpose. They utilize sophisticated algorithms and large datasets to create memes quickly and efficiently.

They work in the same way as other AI tools. They analyze existing memes, humor styles, and cultural trends. For example, on the ‘Supermeme.ai’ platform, when the user enters a specific topic, the AI offers multiple meme options with different titles and templates. You can try to go ‘viral’ by choosing among them.

Such tools are quite advantageous, as they save time and allow you to create a meme without the need for design skills. You can customize the results by adjusting fonts and colors, making them more personal. In this respect, these tools offer a good opportunity for anyone who wants to add humor to their social media interactions. However, we also asked another question above: Can artificial intelligence create better memes than humans? To answer this, we need to compare the creativity of human beings and artificial intelligence.

Comparing Human and Artificial Intelligence Creativity

Artificial intelligence can do many things like humans. In fact, some things it does much better. For example, when playing casino games on the Mr Bet casino site, it can make the most optimal decisions and achieve extremely successful results. However, playing at online casinos is different from doing things that require creativity.

There is a sub-category of this technology called ‘creative artificial intelligence’: it can draw pictures, write books, and even write poems. You’ve probably seen examples of these by now: pictures drawn by AI are particularly popular and have even been exhibited in art galleries.

A sense of humor is not something that AI can easily imitate. It is deeply rooted in cultural context and can be highly subjective. A human being draws on personal experiences, social norms, and emotional nuances to create a meme. All AI can do is analyze humor trends, identify patterns, and use those patterns to create something ‘similar’. This is hard to describe, but we can say that this technology does not have the ‘subtlety required to create striking memes.

User Perceptions of Memes Created by Artificial Intelligence

There is research on how humans perceive AI-generated memes, and most of them show that humans have a hard time distinguishing between the two. That is, when shown two memes, one created by a human and one by a machine, humans have difficulty recognizing which one belongs to the technology.

However, the same research reveals that a human-created meme is often perceived as more creative and funnier than an AI counterpart. So, while this technology can replicate existing styles and formats well enough, it lacks that unique touch of human experience and emotion, which can alter user perception.

However, the impact of a meme on users is not just about who created it. The context and timing of it are also important. A meme that aligns with trending topics performs better, regardless of whether it is created by humans or AI. It’s all about timing: if the topic is popular enough, users tend to be not too picky.

To summarize, while Artificial intelligence has made significant strides in meme creation, it is still unable to replicate human creativity. For the same reason, AI can’t create better memes than humans. However, the most important feature of this technology is that it constantly trains and improves itself. In other words, soon the gap will gradually close, and a day will eventually come when it will create better memes than us.