As has been said before, if someone couldn't care enough to make this emote, why should I care enough to use it?

The streaming community has taken great care to commission and credit artists, or has demonstrated great creativity making their own. Twitch needs to respect that and step up. AI is an insult to all of us.

Just photograph a cat with a santa hat and turn that into an emote, people would love that.

Using AI artwork for global emotes and promotional material is a middle finger to the countless artists who stream their livelihoods on this platform.

Generative AI also has been proven to have a nasty environmental impact as it uses 33 times more energy than traditional software (per Cornell University)

There's so many artists on Twitch that could've done a single emote in a day - AI is lifeless, soulless and evil.

Maybe it’s meek but I’d want there to be reflection on the use of Ai images like this. The innocent idea of “it’s just a cat” is true, and it’s why there are many who are trying to talk to you about why it’s more than that. Ethics right now is what’s being disrespected because continuous use of generation leads to automation and in turn, elimination of people. When our market is already four companies holding strong to the American people and giving fewer and fewer viable options of work, or even freelance, what becomes of us?
Art is a human soul reflected. Be it in a drawing, a photograph, or just words.

It hurts when not only is what we make chopped up, packaged, and distributed en mass— but we are not alone. It’s the parts of many melded into an image. It’s because we know, something was taken without consent.

Please consider why so many people are outraged with HOW Ai is used, not its existence. Companies are RACING eachother for a monetary gain of this generation salad tool. Forcing even the millions of employees who don’t agree, go with it.

Please- think about why they’d use words that are absolute when the future is never certain and cannot be written. Not alone, anyways.

Thanks for reading.

There’s about a billion artists you could have contacted you cheap mfers

No AI

A literal slap to the face of Twitch's ENTIRE Art category, and creators of commissioned or handmade stream assets. Embarrassing to keep having to fight our platform to have a spine and stand up for what's right.

This ain't it, Twitch.

I can't believe x amount of people thought using AI was a good idea...

For the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the image isn't AI because if it is I wonder, what happened?

At this stage the impression given when using AI to do things like this just seems... lazy?

Is Twitch as a business and service so in the red that cutting costs and corners needs to move onto emotes of all things?
Emotes, (which are a huge introduction/first impression that even the most casual/newcomer user can interpret regardless of their level of engagement with the website and service) can now be endlessly churned out, like a **** in a bathroom, without a care in the world.

Does that not seem pointlessly "cheap"? Of all the cost-cutting methods and approaches that could be taken, a fundamental creative signal for your users is now being shown to be worthless. That this successful and huge company must now struggling so much with finance and creative ideas, that it needs to employ AI to go for a quantity instead of quality approach? That Twitch cannot tap into its gargantuan source of creators, ideas and workforce to find better ways to use its investors money? Is this supposed to be the first sign of slow lumbering decent in surrendering to the whims of the economy by removing any semblance of humanity?
"Oh no, not the loss of humanity, the cheapest, most fickle source of profits"

But who knows, maybe this emote was put out to test the waters, see the user response as to gauge if this is something that can be quietly waited out until people forget or give up. Then! the profits will start coming in, because no one would care at that point right?
So it would cost nothing!
(Just the very clear declaration that any sort of support for genuine creatives is worth less than a few prompt words typed to an AI)

Ah yes, that's all these emotes, and by extension any creative person on the platform, must be worth to investors and the company as a whole, right?

Just a few words on a screen.

Not worth the money they generate to have something as simple as a little icon representing them, to actually represent them. Let the AI handle it, they'll all forget or give up, so we save money in the long run!

But oh well, I'm just an overly dramatic user complaining about a trend and method that is actively obliterating livelihoods of creatives. What would I know about perceptions given to so many different users. Maybe its just me that thinks having to use AI for something as fundamental as emotes gives the impression that as a business, Twitch MUST be scrapping the bottom of the barrel on this one, no?? Are investors supposed to be reassured by this? Is it not a signal that even features in the forefront need cost-cuts, so as to save a sinking ship?

Its only been a day so, who knows, this could all be changed so that it never happened, or politely sidestepped with a statement that effectively changes nothing. Its a shame but oh well, as a user that's all I'm worth in the end right?

Just a few words on a screen.

Absolutely disrespectful to creators and artists alike. You're telling me TWITCH can't afford an emoji artist? Get all the way out of here.

Absolutely disgraceful of a platform that's supposed to be promoting creativity ripping it away through promotion of using AI that uses photos and drawings without consent or credit to the original artists and photographers

Generative AI is hollow theft and inappropriate to be used by any company. The internet was built on lolcats, you could certainly find hundreds if not thousands of cats either with hats on or do a simple photoshop; and yet you chose this. There are so many talented artists on the platform, and you act like you appreciate them and want them to grow and prosper, yet parade a mockery like this on your social media. An emote made by one of us would be embraced and enjoyed, and this just is pathetic and disappointing. A shame.

Twitch come on man

With all the human artists you have on the platform, you instead go with AI scraping their work to generate garbage?

I don't think I've seen this level of disrespect and laziness in a long while. Shameful.

Twitch must be going down hill if they can't hire an artist. Guess it's time to move to YouTube.

It isn't hard to get a picture of a cat with a hat on, whether drawn or just taking a real picture. Using AI is just lazy

Artists work and spend so much money to hone their craft, Just for AI which has learned on easy mode from actual artist's style but not the method on how to get there for a meh-looking emote! I am not using this until this situation is made right. I will stick to my own emotes that I paid an actual person to make and towards getting them an honest living wage

Please hire a real artist. Ai art is a travesty