Erica, The Laughing Robot?

Research at Kyoto University is trying to improve conversations between people and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/15/scientists-teach-robot-laugh-right-time-research). The study used a 'female' robot, Erica, attempting to improve 'her' art of conversational laughter. Laughter can occur in very different contexts. There can be solo laughs and purely social laughs (that can be polite 'chuckles'). Both of these are clearly very different from mirthful laughs in response to jokes. The data, used to guide the scientist programmers, was gathered from more than 80 'speed dating' dialogues between male university students and Erica. The robot was initially teleoperated by 4 amateur female actors (presumably, making Erica's verbal responses appropriate to the students). It might be instructful to learn which student eventually dated the robot! I'm also certain that 'stand-up' comedians would be very interested in this research.