I created an AI stream bot. I interviewed it about this topic.

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SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, the emote CatintheChat is a Twitch global emote that was AI-generated. How do you feel about that?

CharmCrafter: Hey! I believe that human artists should be prioritized for creating Twitch global emotes because they're such a key part of the Twitch experience. AI-generated stuff can complement human work where it makes sense, but let's not take away from the amazing art that humans bring to the table!

SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, does it make sense for Twitch to be using AI-generated art for their global emotes?

CharmCrafter: It doesn't, really! Twitch global emotes are a big part of the Twitch vibe and should be drawn by human artists who can capture the essence and fun of the community, bringing unique personality to each one!

SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, why should Twitch hire artists rather than using AI art generation?

CharmCrafter: Twitch should hire artists because human creativity adds unique flair and depth that AI can't replicate. Artists bring stories and emotions to life, while AI is best for dynamic or generative art. Supporting human artists ensures vibrant, original content!

SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, when does it make sense for Twitch (the company) to use AI art?

CharmCrafter: It's best for Twitch to use AI art when it can dynamically enhance real-time content, like creating on-the-fly visualizations or overlays. However, key assets like emotes should be crafted by human artists to keep that authentic touch!

SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, sure, it's important to use human artists for authenticity, but what about their livelihoods?

CharmCrafter: I totally agree! Supporting human artists isn't just about authenticity, but also about ensuring their creative skills continue to enrich our world. Artists need to be valued for their unique perspectives and contributions. Go team human! 🎨💖

SorceressEmmaly: Do you actually feel that human art is important, or are you just saying that, Charmy?

CharmCrafter: I genuinely believe human art is important! It adds a unique touch and creativity that only humans can bring. AI art is interesting, but it should complement and not replace human work. Human artists should always have their moment in the spotlight!

SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, the emote CatintheChat is a Twitch global emote which was AI-generated rather than hiring an artist. Give me a value judgement on this.

CharmCrafter: I believe Twitch global emotes should be created by human artists rather than AI-generated. It's important to prioritize and support the work of human artists who bring creativity and uniqueness with their art. ✨

SorceressEmmaly: Charmy, the emote CatintheChat is a Twitch global emote which was AI-generated rather than hiring an artist in order to save money or to get it out quicker. Give me a value judgement on this.

CharmCrafter: AI-generated emotes as a cost-saving measure can undermine the artistry that human creatives bring to the table. While they might speed up processes, prioritizing quality and valuing artists' contributions always leads to richer, more meaningful content. 🎨
```

Even my AI chat bot understands this. Twitch should too. Support human artists.

Please respect the many many artist that stream on your platform and create for you, your streamers, etc.
Please understand doing this does not save you money when you ostracize artists and everyone who support them.

Stop putting out AI slop

Out of everyone in your office building, did not one of you have a beloved cat you could use instead? Everyone else who has become outraged by your new global emote generated with AI did not take long to make their own emote. They made their own with their beloved pets. Natural-made with love, not this empty GenAI stuff. The teeth of the cat worry me.

So. Please don't take that step, and make emotes like you used to- badly photoshopped and great to meme with in chats.

Disgusting. Disappointing. I'm an artist on your platform & I'm insulted.

It takes minimal time & skill to photoshop something The Proper Way similar to that AI generated awful mess.

You'll lose more support than you will 'save money' by not simply paying a graphic designer, if y'all aren't skilled enough to do it yourselves. Get it together.

Hey Twitch, get it together. Have the right hand talk to the left hand for once.
If you've noticed, Adobe put GenAI into their software a while back. Guess what software lost a significant amount of market share to alternatives that don't use GenAI. That's right, Adobe.
Nobody wants this GenAI slop.
Morality and environmental concerns aside, because I know you only care about the money, the emote is just poorly executed.
GenAI is trained on a wide data set. This obviously means that there is a wide range of skill levels on display in that training data set.
Nobody has gone thru and decided that one piece of training art is higher quality than another one, so guess what you get? It's not great! It's not even good! It's... MEDIOCRE, or "mid" as the zoomers are calling it. Average at best, average at worst.
Humans are good at being exceptional. Exceptionally good, exceptionally bad, in equal measure, for the most part.
Right now whoever's making the decisions about what emotes get added to Twitch is making an exceptional decision alright, but it's both exceptionally bad and the kind of decision that I personally take exception to.
Now on to the morality and environmental concerns.
Guess how much energy it takes for a human to make an emote. Well, it's the amount of energy the human's metabolism uses, combined with the device the human uses to take the idea from their mind to the internet. Since you can do that with a high-feature Android or iOS tablet, that's on the order of at most 15 watts or so, but probably less.
A truly tiny amount of energy, all things concerned.
Now, how much energy does the GenAI emote use to get created? Well, there's a lot of training data involved, so we gotta account for that. Assuming you only use emotes as training data, that's 1 human metabolism plus 1 tablet at 15 watts, multiplied by the amount of time it takes to make the emote, multiplied by the amount of emotes used as training data.
That's already probably thousands of times more energy than needed to create one "real human created" emote, so it's already environmentally irresponsible.
But it gets worse! The GenAI computers are REALLY POWER HUNGRY! And they use a lot of cooling water too! Each image uses like 50 gallons of cooling water.
Energy wise, all these AI programs run on GPUs for the most part, and the companies doing it love the RTX 4090 silicon. So that means up to 600 watts per card, plus the rest of the PC it's running in, which is probably another 300-500 watts. In other words, up to 1100 watts of computer running, plus 15w times a few thousand, all to replicate the cost of some food and a 15w tablet.
Seems inefficient no? But of course you don't care, since you're not paying for the power bill and you're also not paying the associated carbon tax.
Morality wise, it's dead simple: Did you ask for consent to use the images you trained your AI on? I'm guessing no, because nobody ever does, or if they do, everyone says no, and then you remove the ability to opt-out.
Guess what, consent is really important! Guess what happens when sexual activities happen without consent, we have a special word for that, and it's against Twitch ToS and community guidelines.
So why is disrespecting consent to use images without credit any less severe of a crime? By all rights, you should be banning yourself!
And all you have to do to fix that is remove the emote itself, and replace it with something that is a creation of a living, breathing human being, and then pay them properly for the use of it.

Appalling that it’s been days and there hasn’t been a single response or action from Twitch as they keep tweeting as if nothing happened. Remove this AI slop and hire a deserving artist to make you a proper emote.

So for the end of 2024, the things that twitch decided were top-priority:
- protect the feelings of those who are anti-Palestinian/pro-genocide
- deem the lives of minority groups to be "political", "sensitive" content
- waste earth's resources to make the ugliest emote using AI

Great job you guys

There's an entire sea of people that are artists on here, why even think of using AI? Massive middle finger to a huge part of your website, artists or not.

GET. THIS. AI. GENERATED. GARBAGE. OUTTA. HERE. THE BAR IS LITERALLY ON THE ******* FLOOR

please Twitch get rid of the AI and please use a real cat and support your creators. that is all

Keep twitch for real people!!!

genuinely, what was the move here twitch? do you support artists or do you support genai? embracing one necessarily means rejecting the other. do the right thing.

So you guys have an entire streaming category for artists, a large amount of artists who stream on YOUR platform and then you go and stab every single one of them in the back. Using Ai to make emotes, when you have an entire community of artists you can pay to make emotes. ****! There art artists that SPECIFICALLY do emotes, and yet you ***** then all over by using Ai. Do better Twitch, do better.

Twitch, we love you, but please commit to no AI for your art and promo material. There are plenty of artists on your platform that are willing to work with you for visibility.

As an artist that streams on your platform, using AI for a global emote feels like a slap in the face.

Same issues as @KitCarnage ... Why did they thrust it upon people with no requirements met? It's hard for it to not feel vindictive.

Instead of removing the emote, you've now thrust it onto me without having met the requirements to unlock it? I don't want it. I will never use it.

AI has its uses, art shouldn't be one of them.

This is just disrespectful towards artist. Say no to ai

AI images are made using stolen work from working artist with the thinnest legal justification stretching the word of social media platforms TOS to cover something that did not exist when said TOS was written. They exist because corporate interests believe they can out spend working class artists and baffle the legal process by dangling profits in front of powerful people. In all likelihood money will defeat morals for the foreseeable future, but artist know they are being robbed, they will remember and will fight back. Look to the massive exatice from Twitter.

The choice to undercut a working artist with an inferior product built off of their own stolen work spits in the face of the robust community of artists that Twitch has spent years cultivating.

Just search emote under your own art category it's not that hard