AI Generated Endless Episode Of ‘Seinfeld’ has already been suspended from Twitch

What is the current state of AI-generated content? There has been a sharp increase in news headlines concerning the use of AI art during the past several months. AI has become a contentious topic in the illustration industry since it may one day endanger the employment of professional artists. Digital illustration is only one example of how artificial intelligence is being used in the arts. A lot of AI-generated screenplays and storylines have also been produced, which might endanger authors in the future.

The bizarre brand-new program has been streaming on Twitch since the middle of December of last year. It goes by the name of Nothing, Forever and airs constantly. It is an AI-generated parody of Seinfeld. The blocky, low-resolution visuals are evocative of computer games from the 1980s. Because they are AI, the "jokes" are absurd and unpredictable. A month and a half into its run, it went too far on Sunday when its Jerry turned transphobic.

The endless episode is mostly "about nothing," as the title implies, as algorithmically animated Seinfeld characters walk aimlessly about their apartment having meandering, dream-like discussions that are largely unmoderated by humans and driven by OpenAI's GPT-3 language model.

Seinfeld was famously described as "a show about nothing," and that description has become something of a prophecy, as a bizarre, AI-generated Seinfeld episode has been streaming on Twitch for a full month, titled "Infinite Nothing."

The never-ending episode is, as its title suggests, very much "about nothing," as algorithmically animated Seinfeld characters wander aimlessly around their apartment, engaging in meandering, dreamlike conversations powered by OpenAI's GPT-3 language model, with minimal human moderation.

In an interview with Vice, Skyler Hartle, the co-creator of "Nothing, Forever," explained the thinking behind the project:

"The actual impetus for this was it originally started its life as this weird, very, off-center kind of nonsensical, surreal art project," Hartle said. "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." - Forbes

In an interview with Vice, Skyler Hartle, the co-creator of “Nothing, Forever,” explained the thinking behind the project:

“The actual impetus for this was it originally started its life as this weird, very, off-center kind of nonsensical, surreal art project,” Hartle said. “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.”

On Sunday night, during a stand-up bit, Larry went rogue. “There’s like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?,” he said on stage. “I’m thinking about doing a bit about how 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 transgender people are ruining the fabric of society. But no one is laughing, so I’m going to stop. Thanks for coming out tonight. See you next time. Where’d everybody go?”

The cast of the program claimed that Larry's transphobic and rightward turn was the result of a temporary swap to a less advanced AI model during a rewrite in order to keep the show on the air. Ironically, the program has been prohibited because Larry became a bigot as a result of that model.