The streaming platform Twitch praised the trend “Vtuber” on Twitter during the pre-Christmas season. This is great and would “create artificial intelligence like never before.” Viewers shake their heads about this, while Vtubers themselves are outraged by the label: They are not artificial intelligence; they are real people.
In 2022, Twitch introduced the tag “Vtuber” for streamers who use a “virtual avatar” to present themselves to their audience.
At that time, many people simply stuck “Vtuber” on their channels as a joke, which upset the real Vtubers, who felt mocked.
Chief nerd Asmongold even remarked back then, “Vtubing” is like a hack for women.
How has Twitch embarrassed itself? Now, at the end of 2022, Twitch looks back on the year and considers the tag a great success. They tweeted on December 22:
The Vtuber tag brought avatars and viewers together in a great place, Vtubers grew and created AI like never before – oh, and some fantastic characters and personalities emerged as well.
They then showcased Vtubers like CodeMiko, uguubear, nyannes.
Vtubers distance themselves from artificial intelligence
What is the criticism of this? The term “AI” has absolutely nothing to do with Vtubers, as people angrily point out on Twitter.
- “Twitch, I appreciate that you are spreading love, but with all due respect: Vtubing has nothing to do with AI. Artificial intelligence not only harms Vtubers but also many talented artists who work with and for Vtubers. So it is really offensive and degrading to be called that.”
- “We do not create AI, and we are not AI. We are real-time animated characters. We are human.”
- “My character is a rogue AI, but I am in no way involved in any IRL AI stuff.”
- “Funny, because it sounds like an AI wrote this, which only vaguely understands what Vtubing is.”
The situation is so tense because “AI created artwork” is currently a hot topic for many people who work artistically. They feel their own existence threatened by AIs.
How can such a mistake happen at Twitch? Some users assume that Twitch simply made a mistake in the tweet and wanted to praise how much beautiful art was created by Vtubers.
Due to autocorrect or a simple oversight, “art” turned into artificial intelligence (“AI”) and Twitch was apparently too proud to correct or explain it in any way.
Well, it makes Twitch seem a bit out of touch when they congratulate themselves on a great idea while confusing “people who appear as cartoon characters” with “artificial intelligence.”
A particularly extreme case related to Vtubing:
