Editor’s Note: Shortly after this article was written, the Nothing, Forever Twitch channel was suspended. According to a statement posted by one of the channel’s developers, a technical outage caused the developers to implement a backup system with less-refined filters for offensive language. As a result of this switch, the AI program generated transphobic comments before being taken offline. We will follow up on this story as it develops.
I don’t know what I expected when I sat down to watch Nothing, Forever, the new AI-generated Twitch stream that generates new episodes of Seinfeld. I do know the one aspect that I never could have predicted — its humanity.
Per the description on the watchmeforever Twitch channel, which currently has 178,000 followers: “Nothing, Forever is a show about nothing, that happens forever. Kinda like popular sitcoms of the past, except that it never stops. Nothing, Forever is always-on, runs 365 days of the year, and delivers new content every minute. Everything you see, hear, or experience (with the exception of the artwork and laugh track) is always brand new content, generated via machine learning and AI algorithms.”
Nothing, Forever recreates Seinfeld in a visual style similar to the “Money for Nothing” music video, but you’re sure to recognize the interior of Seinfeld’s New York apartment and comedy club frequented by the titular stand-up. And despite the characters’ names being changed from the show, you’ll be familiar with the lo-fi faces of the four core cast members.
With its sometimes stilted dialogue and randomly placed laugh track, Nothing, Forever bares a resemblance to David Lynch’s offbeat sitcom Rabbits. The Twitch series does an incredible job of generating the general back and forth that makes up a traditional Seinfeld scene. One character introduces a topic of interest, the characters lob the conversation back and forth, and comedy ensues. The only difference is the AI operates beyond the normal bounds of our reality.
Here are some topics discussed during my viewing session:
George discusses “artificial” versus “real” wine as his arms rotate through his body.
After Elaine reveals that she’s late for an appointment, Jerry proposes they sing “Time After Time” to travel into the past.
Jerry and George discuss opening a food truck named “The Soup Nazi Truck.”
Jerry discovers a new restaurant that only serves cactus soup once a year.
They discuss seeing a squirrel on the subway and the contents of its suitcase.
Jerry and George list all the talking appliances they have encountered.
As with the actual show, these scenes are intercut with clips of Jerry performing stand-up. Here is an example of one of the jokes I heard performed:
“Knock, knock”
(Uprourious laugh track)
“Who’s there?”
(Silence)
(Then we cut back to Jerry’s apartment.)
But back to what surprised me most about the artificially generated sitcom. Often in the past, we see examples of AI quickly becoming problematic. You may recall when Microsoft released the Tay chatbot on Twitter and users immediately taught it to be racist.
My guess was that Nothing, Forever would amplify the more mean-spirited aspects of Seinfeld and whatever else it learns from. Instead the streaming series has a group of characters who seem much more positive and supportive of one another than I could’ve expected.
Jerry tells a joke about seeing a man walk by wearing a top hat with a parrot on his shoulder. “It’s National Parrot Day,” the man says. Jerry tells the audience that it’s odd to celebrate such an obscure holiday, but maybe every day is worth celebrating.
Jerry describes an encounter in the grocery store where he spotted a woman staring back and forth at two cereal boxes. He suggests she flip a coin to help her decide, but she says she’s already made up her mind. “That’s the kind of confidence you should have in life,” Jerry explains.
Jerry goes to the bank and notices a sign that says “No food or drinks allowed inside,” but someone had taken a marker and written “except coffee.”
“Here’s to the rebels out there who don’t take life too seriously,” he tells the audience.
As implied by its name, Nothing, Forever is designed to never end, so in a way it exists outside of time. This allows us to see an infinite number of aspects that could’ve existed in the Seinfeld universe. Perhaps even one scene that seems to show the moment when Jerry was first inspired to take up a career in comedy.
During this scene, Elaine tells Jerry and George about a “big risk” she took recently.
“I ordered a pizza with extra anchovies,” she says. “I’ve never done that before”
Jerry replies by saying he wouldn’t have been so bold, but Elaine’s bold move has inspired him to take a major chance in life. George asks if he is finally going to try stand-up. Elaine explains that Jerry couldn’t perform in front of a crowd. He’s too uncomfortable to even speak with strangers.
We then cut to the stage of the comedy club. It’s empty, save for the lone microphone. Jerry doesn’t appear, and the scene ends. It’s a somber conclusion, but at least we as an audience know that Jerry gets over his stage fright. And now we have a never-ending stream of endless possibilities for the show about nothing.
