Spongebob Squarepants was first on the air nearly 24 years ago and has continued to have new episodes ever since. It’s inspired generations of kids over the decades and now a new Twitch stream is trying to ensure it’s around to entertain us forever.
A new AI Spongebob Squarepants show has begun to stream on Twitch, although it only lasted for about two days.
The channel, ai_sponge, promoted itself as a parody of the classic TV show featuring recreations of the characters and a few basic settings from the show as 3D models. Unlike other AI channels on Twitch, ai_sponge didn’t list what exact programs it used to create the character’s movement, their voices, or the dialogue generation.
The channel was planned to run infinitely, so players could have expected to see the AI-generated sponge for as long as the creator was able to keep their channel running. If it gains enough traction, it’s likely that the AI and characters would have improved, creating better scenarios with the characters.
As of writing, a bunch of the dialogue has been related to strangely sexual situations and Patrick asking about aliens repeatedly.
It’s certainly not at the standard of some of the other AI streams that have shown up, such as the infinite version of Seinfeld who got banned briefly for hate speech. With this show going on forever and the creator having no way to control what the characters will say, it would only be a matter of time before we saw Spongebob make a similar mistake.
It’s also unclear how Nickelodeon will react to this new program if it catches wind. While the program lists itself as a parody, the company may still seek action to take it down for using exact characters and voice actors.
There’s everything chance that’s exactly what happened as this article was being written—the channel was suddenly taken offline today due to some kind of Twitch TOS violation.
It seems the channel was created on March 5, meaning it was active for around 48 hours before the deletion. The reason for the ban is not immediately available, with the stream just being immediately interrupted with a notice that the channel would no longer be available. Dot Esports reached out for a comment from Twitch about why ai_sponge was banned, but a response was not immediately available.
It’s unlikely this channel will be able to make a comeback in any capacity, whatever the reason for the ban.
Using the name of the thing you’re parodying, as well as the voices and exact 3D versions of the characters, are likely not covered by the use of parody on Twitch.
Update March 8, 5.20pm CT: The channel has been unbanned since the release of this article, although it is currently offline. Those who want to see for themselves should follow the link above directing to the ai_sponge Twitch channel.
Published: Mar 8, 2023 06:22 pm