Who is Watchmeforever? AI Twitch streamer gets banned for 14 days for alleged transphobia

An interesting story that has developed on Twitch over the past few days is that of Watchmeforever. The channel hosts an endless AI-generated episode of the popular '90s sitcom Seinfeld titled "Nothing, Forever."

Artificial intelligence has become more readily available recently, with examples including applications like ChatGPT and DALL-E. The public has taken an interest in generative AI, so it comes as no surprise that this Twitch channel became an instant success.

However, issues arose with "Nothing, Forever" after its AI-generated version of Jerry Seinfeld began making transphobic and homophobic remarks in one of its stand-up bits. This has since led to a 14-day ban from the platform and apologies from the channel's creators.

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Watchmeforever created by Mismatch Media

Watchmeforever was created by a group called Mismatch Media, which describes itself as an experimental media lab. As mentioned earlier, the channel streams a show called "Nothing, Forever," an endless, AI-generated sitcom that was heavily inspired by the '90s television series Seinfeld.

"Nothing, Forever" was created using OpenAI's ChatGPT-3 models (for the text) and Azure Cognitive Services (for the speech), as well as proprietary algorithms created by Mismatch Media.

The goal of the channel is to provide an endless stream of AI-generated content, promising in its Twitch bio to run "365 days a year" and provide new content "every minute."

A 14-day ban from Twitch has already thrown a wrench in that plan, as the AI-counterpart to Jerry Seinfeld began making homophobic and transphobic comments during one of the channel's stand-up comedy bits.

This has been a common issue with different types of AI applications. Many remember when Microsoft unveiled Tay, an AI Twitter account that began repeating racist rhetoric within a day of its launch.

Some members of Mismatch Media addressed the ban on the official Watchmeforever Discord server. One of the staff members, Xander, stated that they would appeal the ban.

Xander also stated that the team would work to ensure that these types of comments are not made again, adding that they do not reflect the beliefs of Mismatch Media.

Another member echoed these sentiments while offering an explanation for why these comments were made. Their Discord post indicated that the issue stemmed from an outage of the GPT-3 model the show normally runs on.

The issues that Watchmeforever and its AI-generated Seinfeld have show that there is still plenty of work to do when it comes to artificial intelligence.