Chatting with Jesus: the rise of AI streams on Twitch

eurogamer.net:

I'm watching Jesus on Twitch. He's a bearded white man answering philosophical (and not so philosophical) questions from the chat. Just type out a question and Jesus will answer.

Of course, Jesus is an AI. At one point, he even admits he's «not the physical Jesus», so at least he sounds self aware. The channel states it was made possible due to contributions from The Singularity Group — not a Christian organisation — and tech from PlayHT, an AI-powered voice generation platform that replicates celebrity voices.

Whose face and voice is used for AI Jesus? It's unclear. Is it entertaining? Sort of. Is this really the sort of content Twitch should be used for? Debatable.

I switch to another channel. This time it's a presidential debate between Trump and Biden, also made possible by The Singularity Group. Again, viewers can ask a question through typing in chat, but mostly it's just an excuse to attempt to make both presidents say something silly.

Twitch is actively promoting this type of content. Scroll down on the homepage and you'll find a section called 'Probably Artificial, Hopefully Intelligent: AI powered streams and related discussions', filled with recommended streams powered by AI.

Users in another stream recommended to me are busy whipping up false drama in a channel where you can control AI versions of popular streamers and celebrities. Amouranth, Asmongold, and Kai Cenat are all available as choices, alongside Elon Musk, President Obama, Gordon Ramsay, and even Steve Jobs.

The use of AI in the video game industry is becoming an increasingly prevalent debate: from its use in scriptwriting and art, to actors having their likenesses used for deepfake mods.

But what are the dangers of using AI in Twitch