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AI-Generated 'Seinfeld' Show Banned on Twitch After Transphobic Standup Bit (vice.com) 227

"Nothing, Forever," the infinitely-generating AI version of Seinfeld that tens of thousands of people were watching has been banned for 14 days from Twitch after Larry Feinberg -- a clone of Jerry Seinfeld -- made transphobic statements during a standup bit late Sunday night. From a report: "Hey everybody. Here's the latest: we received a 14-day suspension due to what Larry Feinberg said tonight during a club bit," Xander, one of the creators of Nothing Forever, said on Discord. "We've appealed the ban, and we'll let you know as we know more on what Twitch decides. Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, we'll be back and will spend the time working to ensure to the best of our abilities that nothing like that happens again."

The show's AI, which is trained on classic sitcom episodes and various AI tools, mimics that of a traditional Seinfeld episode, which starts with a standup routine from "Larry," before moving to his apartment. During a standup set Sunday night, Larry made a series of transphobic and homophobic remarks as part of a bit: "There's like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?," he said. "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?"

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AI-Generated 'Seinfeld' Show Banned on Twitch After Transphobic Standup Bit

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  • I don't really see the problem here, and I've actually dated a trans person. The very text of the 'joke' itself indicates that he's saying someone no one in the room wants to hear. Also, this is probably one of the funnier bits I've seen come out of this project-- most of it is lame as hell. My two cents.

    --
    We will soon have the option to harvest our farts, so we can post & comment on stats about them.
  • I'm reminded of a story from the last few years where a Netflix executive was fired for telling people something they explicitly couldn't use in a show. But he said the actual offensive term (If I recall correctly it's the one I couldn't even put in this very Slashdot post, but I just made you all think it anyway (you racists!) but I might be misremembering) and someone decided they were terribly offended by the mention of something explicitly phrased as being terribly offensive and that the company should
    • I'm reminded of a story from the last few years where a Netflix executive was fired for telling people something they explicitly couldn't use in a show. But he said the actual offensive term (If I recall correctly it's the one I couldn't even put in this very Slashdot post, but I just made you all think it anyway (you racists!) but I might be misremembering) and someone decided they were terribly offended by the mention of something explicitly phrased as being terribly offensive and that the company should not put in their shows and that person was fired.

      Sure you aren't remembering this [theglobeandmail.com]?

      After George Floyd’s murder last May, a Black CBC reporter tweeted that she had repeatedly been called the N-word. I was furious. I wanted to put her on the air to discuss that, and said so in a conference call with producers for The Weekly with Wendy Mesley.

      During our discussion, I was so upset over what our colleague experienced that I stupidly filled in the N-word. Why? I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times, and I have no good answer. I was mad that

    • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      I'm reminded of a story from the last few years where a Netflix executive was fired for telling people something they explicitly couldn't use in a show. But he said the actual offensive term (If I recall correctly it's the one I couldn't even put in this very Slashdot post, but I just made you all think it anyway (you racists!) but I might be misremembering) and someone decided they were terribly offended by the mention of something explicitly phrased as being terribly offensive and that the company should not put in their shows and that person was fired.

      This vaguely reminds me of the Futurama "Popplers" episode for some reason. "Don't eat them with honey mustard. Don't [....]." I'm now suddenly imagining a comedy skit in which an exec tells writers all the things they can't say, one after the next, in a "seven dirty words" sort of way, and offends everyone and their mother.

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 ) on Monday February 06, 2023 @01:32PM (#63269641)

    Why do such sensitive people have to shut everything down. I hate church and religion, but I'm not trying to get them all shut down, I just don't go. Why can't these people just not watch instead of taking it from everyone else. Jesus Christ if someone wants to make the most hateful show ever then more power to them, I just wont watch if I don't like it.

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Monday February 06, 2023 @01:51PM (#63269745)

      This happened with we started embracing the notion that certain thoughts or jokes could be "problematic", "tone deaf", or "toxic", and should therefore be snuffed out.

      It doesn't even work - humans by their nature are rebellious and want to try the forbidden fruit so if you tell people they aren't allowed to talk about certain things or joke about certain things all you end up doing is galvanizing them to talk about that FOR SURE.

      Just let people discuss what they want and tell the jokes they want. The unfunny stuff will fizzle and the bad ideas will fail - there's no need to police discussion. And if at the end of the day stuff DOESN'T fizzle - ie almost everyone agrees on a point but you are absolutely in disagreement - then you're either wrong to begin with or you just have to accept that we live in a democratic society and you're not owed that your opinion must be shared by anyone else.

      Its sort of funny that the current mainstream was literally born out of counterculture and rebellion against the previous norms yet they don't see that by trying to enforce their viewpoints they're creating a completely reverse wave of fed up people who are rebelling back in the opposite direction.

      • by Sigma 7 ( 266129 )

        The unfunny stuff will fizzle and the bad ideas will fail

        Within the past 24 hours, I've seen two "slam head against birthday cake" videos, obviously involving someone who thinks it's funny but it really isn't.

        Whenever it shows up, most comments claim it's yet another instance of people who want to slowly work their way into the "shake well before abusing child" phase. Yet the same unfunny thing appears again and again, as if killing the mood of the birthday is actually funny.

      • > It doesn't even work - humans by their nature are rebellious and want to try the forbidden fruit so if you tell people they aren't allowed to talk about certain things or joke about certain things all you end up doing is galvanizing them to talk about that FOR SURE.

        That's indeed true on a personal level, but an established organization typically doesn't want to offend potential customers. If that bot can generate insensitive LGBTQ+ jokes, it may also start making jokes about Trump voters being (alleged

    • I support them continuing to broadcast. But if I don't support the comedian, I am not going to buy from brands that do support the comedian. That's just encouraging people to attack me and my family. So I stop buying from such brands. The brands notice. They pull their ads. Twitch notices and decides to drop the comedian. Again, I have no problems and even encourage the comedian to continue their act and to spend their own money to promote the act. I just don't want my dollars helping that.

      And, yes, homopho

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by war4peace ( 1628283 ) on Monday February 06, 2023 @03:06PM (#63269993)

        What if we rephrase things a bit, I wonder how THAT would be perceived.

        It's not oversensitive when you have friends in the hospital because some minority people thought beating up a white male was funny.

        What do we do in this case?

        • Well, I am a white male. :-) And my answer is the same: if I don't think the joke is funny, which I'm unlikely to do if it involves beating up white guys, then I'm not going to support that comedian directly (ticket sales) or indirectly (through my spending on advertisers). If there happen to be enough people with similar sentiments, then it has the effect of cutting off funding to a comedian who makes such jokes. It works out the same.

    • People are allowed to spend their money how they see fit. You might call it "sensitive"' to not spend their money on things they don't want, but sane people call that prudent.

      If you don't like that, well it's the free market so I guess you're a crypto communist.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      Why do such sensitive people have to shut everything down.

      Because the "sensitive" people depend on income from people who need to associate themselves with your product.

      Look I'm all for a good naughty dick joke, but I wouldn't cry about "sensitivity" if I got kicked out of a primary school for telling one. Twitch probably doesn't give a fuck. But they tell their advertisers that they have no transphobic content on their platform so they just trigger the banhammer and move on to the millions of hours of other content they have.

      I just wont watch if I don't like it.

      Your words would have actual meaning i

    • by dohzer ( 867770 )

      I fail to see your point. They can make the most hateful show ever, just not on Twitch. Twitch own their platform, and they choose who broadcasts on it.

  • ...Conservatives overreacting to trans people.

    And like everything else in Nothing, Forever, it fails to land because there's no actual punchline.

    That said, 90% of the joke setups I've seen there are not far off of Jerry's writing style.
  • "There's like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?," he said. "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?"

    This is good meta commentary on algorithmic AI vs. cha

  • If the post had everything in context, then I'm missing the transphobia, and homophobia. Transphobia doesn't mean you took offence to something, it means someone made a statement of hate about transsexualism or transsexuality. If the only thing the show is guilty of is making funny observational statements are the current social climate, then don't label it with making Xphobic statements.
    • Re:Transphobic? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cob666 ( 656740 ) on Monday February 06, 2023 @02:26PM (#63269823)

      Transphobia doesn't mean you took offence to something, it means someone made a statement of hate about transsexualism or transsexuality. If the only thing the show is guilty of is making funny observational statements are the current social climate, then don't label it with making Xphobic statements.

      Right? And that's what the real problem is, people are offended by statements that they just don't agree with and call it hate speech.

  • Getting your hand slapped or even losing a job because you made a comment or joke about something that somebody was offended by is just getting out of hand. According to what I've read, the trans / non binary percentage of the population is less than 1% for the US and Canada. What happened to when you were offended by a comedian or just anyone in general, you stopped listening / handing out with them.

    And as somebody famous (not sure who it was, but they were most likely a comedian) said; you don't offend
    • you're free to offend. No one is obligated to provide you with a platform or advertise alongside whatever offensive or inoffensive things you say.

      • Can people please stop using this "Private platform" argument? Remember when Trump got kicked off twitter, and everyone on the left told them it's a private platform, and then the elon musk thing happened and the same argument was thrown the other way?
        These companies don't give a fuck, they're not with anyone and you standing there making the argument that it's their land, and so their rules, is just you giving them free PR.
        A company changes its logo to a rainbow flag, adds "Black lives matter" to their twi

    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      Sorry, kid. Actions have consequences.

      Why is it you can crow all day long about "personal responsibility" but can't take responsibility for your own behavior?

    • What happened to when you were offended by a comedian or just anyone in general, you stopped listening /

      That's pretty much what I do. I find most stand-up comedy to be offensive (usually rife with profanity), so I just don't watch it. No big deal.

  • Maybe it missed... maybe not. But that's an extraordinarily difficult scenario it has described. You understand it's not "performing the routine", right? It's describing it. It would be up to the performer to make it funny to be bombing in the manner described. If nobody knew an AI wrote it, and the performer navigated the tricky waters, it would be regarded as brilliant.

    Some comics could do it. Most could not. But I see the humour. It's the same mental space Chappelle has tried to navigate recently. I thou

    • by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Yes, a talented comedian could make that bit work. But AI is clearly not good at comedy and the nuance is completely lost.

  • That routine was both extremely offensive and not funny at all. Lesson learned: even AI generated content needs human moderators! Somebody should have pulled the plug on that bit before it was put out on the 'net.
  • That's the problem. An AI being a f***ing a***hole doesn't know that it is a f***ing a***hole.
  • Do people watch the AI because the jokes don't make sense? Is it Dadaism?

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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