“Seinfeld” has been a source of inspiration for fans for decades, from the Twitter account @Seinfeld2000 to remixes of every kind. But now, A.I. has taken over the game with a seemingly endless “Seinfeld” episode on Twitch, titled “Nothing, Forever.”
The show launched on Dec. 14, 2022 and features blocky, low-poly versions of Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer, who engage in robotic conversations in a reconfigured, low-quality version of Jerry and George’s apartments. The dialogue, direction and speech are all generated by ChatGPT A.I., generative algorithms and cloud services, while the art and laugh tracks were added by the show’s co-creators.
According to co-creator Skyler Hartle, the goal of the project was to create “a show that can generate entertaining content forever,” like how sitcoms of the ’90s were. However, a quick visit to the Twitch channel will make it clear that A.I. still has a long way to go before it can deliver anything as entertaining as a human-written “Seinfeld” episode.
The scenes change to show Jerry performing stand-up, a mock TV channel guide, exterior shots of the apartment building and more. The laugh track punctuates some not-so-funny lines of GPT-3-generated dialogue, as the humor is limited by the artificial intelligence’s inability to understand human humor and sarcasm. But that’s where a lot of the real humor comes from.
In one scene of the show, Elaine and Kramer are shown melding into a strange new creature, while George talks to Elaine about a restaurant that won’t allow ketchup on steak. “Rules, rules, there are always rules,” Elaine replies, prompting the laugh track. George doesn’t respond and several seconds of silence follow. The scene ends with Elaine slowly falling into a wall, before it changes to digital Seinfeld delivering stand-up saying, “I just don’t even have to help you later. I admit it. You gotta deliver it at the window and then stop.”
It will be hard for anyone — A.I. or real human — to capture the humor that made the show a classic. Until then, fans can enjoy the synthetic version of the show.
