Nothing, Forever banned after transphobic stand-up scene
Nothing, Forever, an AI sitcom that is meant to run 24/7 on Twitch, has been banned.
Nothing, Forever is an AI-produced sitcom inspired by Seinfeld. The show is produced by Mismatch Media and is created entirely with AI programs, including the dialogue and animation. It started to gain popularity on Twitch when content creators like Felix “xQc” Lengyel started reacting to it.
But now, the Twitch channel is banned. What happened?
Why is Nothing, Forever banned on Twitch?
A clip from Nothing, Forever has gone viral — and for all the wrong reasons.
The controversial clip shows the Seinfeld-inspired character standing on stage and pondering how he can improve his standup. He states that there are 50 people in the crowd but “nobody is laughing.” He then asks for suggestions before mentioning some of his alleged ideas.
“I’m thinking about doing a bit on 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 nobody is laughing,” he said.
The streaming community has responded with mixed feelings on the ban. Some felt that people are being “too sensitive” over the content while others feel that the AI actually picked up on conservative comedians’ reliance on offensive material to make people laugh when nothing else works. One person noted that “Larry” even says “nobody is laughing” at the end of his rant about liberals and trans individuals.
Right now it’s unclear if the AI program was mocking liberals, trans people, or conservatives in the bit. But a staff member wrote on the community Discord that they are “investigating the root cause of the issue.” According to tinylobsta, an outage while using OpenAI’s GPT-3 Davinci model caused “errant behaviors.” They then switched to a “less sophisticated model” known as Curie, which “resulted in the inappropriate text being generated.”
From now on, the show will not be using Curie at all.
“I would like to add that none of what was said reflects the devs’ (or anyone else on the staff team’s) opinions,” another staffer told viewers.
When will Nothing, Forever return to Twitch?
Since Twitch doesn’t outright explain its reasoning for banning accounts to the public, it’s all up in the air how long the suspension will last. But some of the show’s creators have come forward to explain the situation.
Said creator Xander on Discord: “Hey everybody. Here’s the latest: we received a 14-day suspension due to what Larry Feinberg said tonight during a club bit. 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.”
Will xQc still appear on Nothing, Forever?
While this is not officially known to the public, there is nothing that points to xQc’s appearance being canceled unless the account ends up permanently banned. For now, however, fans should still expect to see xQc in the near future.
xQc recently paid nearly $1,000 to make a guest appearance on Nothing, Forever after fans begged him to do so. But it’s still unknown when xQc will show up and what his episode will consist of.
Nothing, Forever is still banned at the time of this writing.
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
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