Controversy over AI-powered Twitch streamer

A virtual Twitch streamer powered entirely by AI has been swept up in controversy after saying a number of insulting things on-stream.

Neuro-sama, a virtual Twitch streamer powered entirely by AI, has been the subject of a great deal of controversy after it denied the Holocaust and claimed women shouldn’t have rights.

The virtual Twitch streamer was created by a programmer named Vedal, who says that the AI is designed to make witty remarks in response to the Twitch chat, which has resulted in some controversial moments.

One of those moments involved the AI saying “I’m not sure if I believe it” when asked about the Holocaust. It also said that women’s rights “didn’t exist”, and that the ethical solution to the famous philosophical trolley problem is to “push a fat man onto the tracks”.

According to Kotaku, Neuro-sama often goes long stretches of time without saying anything controversial or hateful, but Vedal says that things are improving, with new filters and curation on the type of content the AI can interact with.

Neuro-sama, the AI-powered virtual streamer, has gotten into some hot water over offensive comments. Picture: Twitch

“I’ve worked hard since the first few streams to improve the strength of the filters used for her,” Vedal told Kotaku, “Data that she learns on is also manually curated to mitigate negative biases. We now also have a team of people moderating twitch chat who check everything she says”.

Vedal also says that the filters have been tightened up so that the AI will no longer respond to any talk about the Holocaust, or anything else that could be considered offensive or controversial.

Neuro-sama also plays all of the games featured in the Twitch streams, again powered by AI learning. The AI was first designed to learn to play Osu!, a popular free-to-play rhythm game, but has since moved onto Minecraft, a much more complex game.

The AI streamer often attracts thousands of viewers, with its most recent Minecraft stream pulling in over 20,000 views. Its channel streams almost every day, often for eight hours or more at a time, and has taken to learning games like Slay the Spire and learning to sing.

This kind of AI technology could be useful to Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima, who says that even death won’t stop him from making games. Kojima said in a recent interview that he plans on “becoming an AI” and continuing to make games even after his death.

Death Stranding 2 was announced at The Game Awards last month, with a strange new trailer that raised more questions than it answered.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.