“After three minutes the chat was begging the host to skip it but it’s all automated, it just kept going.”
Laugh and Cry
An automated YouTube stream of an endless AI-generated “Family Guy” show called “AI Peter” has devolved into ear-bruising chaos, Kotaku reports, with some of your favorite characters of the sitcom blurting out gibberish — and screaming at the top of their lungs nonstop.
The stream, which started back in June of last year, relies on audience submissions to come up AI-generated scripts for back-t0-back “episodes” of the beloved animated series.
And, as Kotaku points out, moderation of these paid submissions doesn’t appear to be front of mind. Some users are misusing the generative AI tech to break the unsettling, 3D-animated characters in unusual ways.
One clip posted on X shows the sitcom’s dog Brian erupting into an ear-splitting gurgling noise. Another clip shows Brian and Chris Griffin screaming as a character lists off industrial accidents (make sure to turn down the volume before watching.)
The exploits are so annoying — the stream isn’t exactly watchable during a screaming match — that they’re reportedly sending viewers running for the hills.
“A few months ago I paid $4 to submit a prompt and single handedly halved the viewership of this AI family guy livestream on YouTube,” the user wrote.
“After three minutes the chat was begging the host to skip it but it’s all automated, it just kept going,” they added in a follow-up.
A few months ago I paid $4 to submit a prompt and single handedly halved the viewership of this AI family guy livestream on youtube pic.twitter.com/nXlrTJUtRn
— abcdent (@abcdentminded) March 25, 2024
Violence in Movies and Sex on TV
The reason behind this bizarre behavior is pretty straightforward and seemingly an open secret among streamers.
On its wiki, AI Peter lists some “common gags and running jokes.”
“The AI Language Model that AI Peter uses does not like parsing special characters in prompts and will frequently output ‘hallucinated’ nonsensical phonemes and sounds in response to being directly prompted to pronounce these characters,” reads the entry.
And characters like an asterisk or semicolon cause characters to have a so-called “stroke.”
Other misuses of the show’s AI systems include prompting characters to explain graphic sex scenes in “excruciating detail” or having them become “self-aware” by “waking up” and realizing they were inside a simulation.
According to Kotaku, the stream’s Discord server erupted in arguments over the prompts.
However, that seemingly hasn’t been enough to motivate the stream’s owners to implement any safeguards — so don’t be surprised the next time you hear Brian and friends having an AI-fueled meltdown.
More on generative AI: OpenAI Let Directors Make Short Films With Sora and the Results Are Wild
