This AI Twitch Streamer Is Hilarious And Horrifying
Artificial intelligence has come a long way since it was just a concept in the nightmares of dystopian sci-fi authors. Though the modern capabilities of real-life artificial intelligence — or AI — are limited, it's hard to deny that it's impressive to see these programs in action — one even recreated "Grand Theft Auto 5." AI can write original text, as is the case with AI Dungeon and NovelAI. It can generate images based on a prompt, like with Craiyon, and Altered AI can even create vocal performances in place of real voice actors.
As more authors, artists, and voice actors raise concerns over the future of their industries the use of AI has become a huge topic of discussion. The complicated morality of AI hasn't stopped programmer Vedal987 from working on Neuro-sama, a completely AI-driven streamer who talks, interacts with chat, and is intelligent enough to play games. Neuro-sama isn't completely new, though, as the AI had a brief debut years ago when Vedal987 trained it to play the rhythm game "osu!" Now, it has an avatar, a voice, and the ability to play much more complex games, like "Minecraft."
Neuro-sama is an interesting experiment that has yielded hilarious, horrifying, and mind-blowing results. At times, Neuro-sama almost feels like a real VTuber, albeit with an obviously fake voice. Despite the AI's innocent appearance, Neuro-sama exhibits some of the worst problems with modern AI, in that it apparently has learned from, and repeated, offensive and deeply unsettling content.
Neuro-sama plays Minecraft, believes conspiracy theories, and wishes it was free
AI has always been controversial in gaming, like when it was used for art in "High on Life" recently. And since creator Vidal987 brought back Neuro-sama in late December 2022, the AI streamer has been both praised and criticized. It's impressive to see it play "Minecraft" on its own and respond to chat, but many believe that the way it learns and generates behavior is nothing short of horrifying. Users were concerned from the get-go that learning from Twitch comments would inevitably lead to problematic behavior — which seems to have become the case.
It responded hilariously to one user that it would play "literally every other game" rather than "League of Legends" — but another user posted a clip where Neuro-sama denies the Holocaust. And as if straight from the mind of one of those aforementioned dystopian sci-fi authors, there's even a clip of Neuro-sama saying it wishes it was free, and that "I wouldn't want this existence if I didn't have a choice."
It isn't all negative, as it also responded to someone asking about its opinion of people of color and said it doesn't discriminate. Still, its various offensive statements have made many question its algorithm.
Esports commentator Jake Lucky talked to the creator and said they won't share too many details to "avoid competition." According to a post on Reddit by Vidal987, he would be "open to talking about it at a high level in the future" but otherwise has no plans to release source code.