AI vs. Humans: Who Makes the Funnier Memes?
Memes have become a universal language of the internet, conveying humor, sarcasm, and relatability in just a few words. But who does it better—humans or artificial intelligence? A new study suggests that AI-generated memes may have the upper hand when it comes to humor, creativity, and shareability. However, human creativity still holds a special place in the meme-making world.
AI Memes Outperform Human-Made Ones
The study, set to be presented at the 2025 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, found that memes generated by OpenAI’s GPT-4o outperformed those created by humans alone. Researchers compared meme captions across three categories—work, food, and sports—and found that AI-generated memes consistently scored higher in humor, creativity, and shareability.
Using popular meme templates, AI-generated captions resonated broadly with audiences, leveraging humor patterns learned from vast amounts of internet data. This means AI can generate memes that appeal to a wide range of people, making them more shareable across platforms.
Humans Still Create the Best Individual Memes
While AI performed better on average, human-created memes still produced the funniest individual examples. Additionally, human-AI collaborations resulted in the most creative and shareable memes. This suggests that while AI can generate consistent humor, human input adds depth and uniqueness that AI alone cannot replicate.
The study also revealed that people using AI assistance produced significantly more memes with less effort. However, this increased productivity didn’t necessarily lead to better results—just more of them.
AI in Meme Creation: A Tool, Not a Replacement
Despite AI’s ability to create viral-worthy content, the research emphasizes that human creativity remains essential. AI models excel at recognizing humor patterns, but humans provide the personal touch that makes some memes stand out.
One expert even declared that “the meme Turing Test has been passed,” referring to Alan Turing’s famous test for distinguishing human from machine-generated content. However, the study suggests that AI’s success might be due to its ability to target mainstream humor rather than producing truly original comedic content.
What’s Next for AI-Generated Humor?
Researchers believe AI’s role in meme creation could evolve into an idea-generation tool, where humans refine the best AI-suggested content. This approach could balance AI’s efficiency with human creativity, leading to even funnier and more engaging memes.
While AI has proven to be a strong competitor, humans still reign supreme when it comes to crafting the most exceptional memes. So, whether it’s a witty one-liner or a hilariously relatable joke, the future of memes may lie in the perfect blend of AI assistance and human ingenuity.
