Seinfeld AI generator banned on Twitch! Where is democracy?
The viral AI-generated Twitch show Seinfeld has been banned after the stand-up comedy erupted with a series of transphobic comments.
Nothing, Forever exploded on Twitch last week after clips showcasing the show's hilarious absurdity were posted on Reddit, causing many viewers to flock to its content 24/7.
Using AI, Nothing, Forever can generate storylines with characters reminiscent of the hit '90s sitcom Seinfeld, with its protagonists being clones of their real-life counterparts.
All signs indicated that the show remained a hit on Twitch until "Larry" - the Jerry Seinfeld version of the show - performed during a stand-up segment that took many by surprise.
AI Seinfeld banned for 'transphobic' stand-up comedy set
During a segment that parodies Seinfeld's opening, where Jerry does a stand-up routine at a club, Larry began making comments that appear to be transphobic.
“I'm thinking about talking a little about the fact that being transgender is actually a mental illness. Or how all liberals are secretly gay and want to impose their will on everyone. Or something about how trans people are destroying the fabric of society,” the AI said.
“But no one is laughing, so I'm going to stop. Thanks for coming out tonight. See you next time. Where would everyone go?"
For Twitch, this was enough to justify the suspension.
As a result of the comments, the channel was blocked for two weeks, but the developers of Nothing, Forever confirmed that what happened did not reflect their views and blamed problems with AI.
According to the report Vice, the developers explained on Discord that changing the AI model seems to have had some negative side effects.
“We started having a crash using OpenAI's GPT-3 Davinci model, which caused the show to show erratic behavior (you may have seen empty rooms cycling through). OpenAI has a less complex model, Curie, which was the predecessor of Davinci. When Davinci started to fail, we switched to Curies to try and keep the show going without any downtime. The switch to Curies resulted in the creation of inappropriate text,” they said.
The makers of Nothing, Forever have also since appealed the ban, so we'll have to see if Twitch goes soft and reduces the length of the ban. Perhaps by the time he returns, the xQc character will be ready to join the show.
Either way, fans of AI-generated shows will need to go elsewhere for their content for now while we wait for Nothing, Forever to return to air.