Hit '90s show 'Seinfeld' got an AI-powered reboot on Twitch - and then got suspended for problematic content

"SEINFELD," one of the most cult shows of the '90s, has found a new life on Twitch, thanks, in part, to an artificial intelligence language model from the makers of ChatGPT. And this improbable creation was gaining in popularity, that is before it got banned for transphobic statements.

Is it possible to create a TV show using artificial intelligence? That's what the creators of "Nothing, Forever" are trying to find out. This series, streamed on the Twitch platform, is a parody of the cult series "Seinfeld." Only here, the show has been built using a combination of machine learning, generative algorithms and cloud services, including dialog generated by the GPT-3 language model made by OpenAI.

"Nothing, Forever is a parody of '90s sitcoms, done in the style of '90s point-and-click PC games (but, you know, in 3D). We set out to build something weird, new, and novel, and this is what we ended up with.

Aside from the artwork and the laugh track you'll hear, everything else is generative, including: dialogue, speech, direction (camera cuts, character focus, shot length, scene length, etc.), character movement, and music," explain the show's co-creators, Brian Habersberger and Skyler Hartle on Reddit.

Launched in early December 2022, the parody show is all the rage on Twitch, allowing more than 10,000 people to tune in simultaneously to stream the zany adventures of characters created by artificial intelligence.

Yet human scriptwriters can rest easy, for now. If the creation may seem impressive in its use of this new technology, the dialogues often remain illogical and totally incomprehensible.

Worse still, the characters -- who look very much like Sims -- can turn their backs to each other while talking, or stare at the walls, making the scenes quite absurd. The humor and lines also lack punch and meaning.

"The actual impetus for this was it originally started its life as this weird, very, off-center kind of nonsensical, surreal art project," co-creator Skyler Hartle, told Motherboard. "But then we kind of worked over the years to bring it to this new place. And then, of course, generative media and generative AI just kind of took off in a crazy way over the past couple of years," he adds.

However, the ambition of the show's creators is to develop endless "always-on" series, offering quality content, which could one day be available on streaming platforms: "Our grounding principle was, can we create a show that can generate entertaining content forever?

Because that's truly where we see the future emerging towards. Our goal with the next iterations or next shows that we release is to actually trade a show that is like Netflix-level quality," Skyler Hartle told Motherboard.

While the show has been streaming since December 2022, its Twitch channel has been temporarily unavailable as of Monday, February 6, 2023, due to an apparent violation of the Twitch Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.

According to a message from Xander, one of the creators of "Nothing, Forever," posted on Discord and reported by US media, the show was suspended for 14 days due to the use of transphobic language.

According to a statement from the creators, they are appealing the ban and "working to ensure to the best of our abilities that nothing like that happens again.”