Streaming, Gen AI, “Are we cooked, Chat?”

So, uh… things don’t feel great in the live streaming space, of late. I say that as someone who just celebrated 10 years streaming on Twitch earlier this month and posts videos to YouTube on a regular basis.

I’m partnered on Twitch and I’m in the YouTube partner program (at a lower monetization level) and in the past few weeks, both have made some decisions and announcements that have me wondering about my future and streaming.

Twitch

In a recent Patch Notes broadcast, Twitch announced that every channel will now be used to train Amazon’s generative AI models. We were all opted-in by default, and it was discovered well before their stream to announce it.

Suffice to say, it did not go over well with the Twitch community. The entire VOD is here, but my takeaways were two quotes…

Head of Community: “We don’t expect you to be happy or excited about this. I don’t expect anyone to react to this favorably.”
Chief Product Officer: “If it’s opt-in, nobody would opt-in. That’s the honest answer.”

From watching the video, it didn’t seem like they were pleased with either the policy, the response, or both. But I don’t want to write fan-fiction about what’s going on in their heads since I have to deal with the end result regardless.

I am not anti-technology, I have been waiting for us to get to Star Trek nearly my whole life, however… we’re not on that path. The advancement of technology is mostly being seen as, “Thank goodness I don’t have to pay those pesky employees anymore!”

It’s not advancing mankind or creating opportunities, we’re just seeing more people at the top get rich, and the people not at the top suffer because of it.

So Twitch telling me that they’re using my stream, my art, my improv, my silly voices and my jokes to train an Amazon AI model is a slap in the face from a platform that often touts itself as “the best place to stream”.

Streamers are, rightfully, peeved about it. But when you weigh our options, we’re kinda stuck. Twitch is the best platform for this, right now. The subscription model isn’t amazing, but it works. The technology is great. The ease of on-boarding is top tier. And most important, our viewers are used to it.

The closest we have to something something similar is YouTube, and uh… I wonder what they’ve done lately?

YouTube

Well, dang… YouTube recently changed the requirements for their partner program. Increasing the number of views and/or hours to qualify for different levels of monetization.

In the past, it might be easy to think, “I’ll just move to another platform!” And we had several to choose from: Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, Facebook Gaming… we still have a few out there, but generally they don’t attract the same kind of audience as Twitch or YouTube.

We’ve had live-streaming contenders pop up, but they struggle to maintain funding and draw enough interest their way. Generally, everyone goes back to where they’re used to, we’re drawn back into the orbit of the platform we liked. Even when they make crappy decisions.

Even more so when they do because the feeling of, “What are you going do about it?” increases each time. They know there aren’t any truly equivalent alternatives, and while they aren’t the only streaming platforms around, they are the devil we know.

I am not in live-streaming for the money, which is usually followed by a hearty laugh and, “What money?” Because a lot of opportunities have dried up. The amount I make from streaming barely pays for streaming: games, tech, fixes, upgrades, a little travel. That’s it.

But a lot of people rely on the income from streaming, so it’s a huge deal to have to switch gears and realize that there are no great options out there.

Especially when it’s been shown that encouraging people to use other methods of monthly support or subscriptions don’t last long. Twitch has just the right amount of viewer rewards that people would rather use their money there.

What’s Next?

I wish I knew. I don’t have any grand illusions that a new streaming platform will show up and offer everything streamers are looking for. Mostly because if it did, it would very likely be discovered that it was not all it’s cracked up to be, or doesn’t have enough actual funding to last more than a few months.

I’ve opted-out of generative AI training on Twitch, and turned off the similar settings on YouTube and that’s about all one can do for now. I’m not naive to the fact that scrapers have no scruples. If it’s been publicly available, it’s been scraped.

But as Picard said in Star Trek: First Contact, “The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!” It isn’t lost on me that he’s speaking from a very personal perspective.

If this tech is “inevitable” then they will have to prove it. If we’re going to get “left behind” then they should just leave us. They’ll say “the genie is out of the bottle” while they haven’t stopped making wishes.

What I can do, each and every time, is say “No. I do not want this.” and take steps to delay it, hold it off, turn it off, etc.

And that’s what streamers did this month with Twitch. We still don’t know what the fallout of it all will be, whether it’s even legal for them to do what they did, or what it will mean for streaming games and other content on the platform anymore.

What’s Good?

To not end on a total downer, one thing I have gotten from streaming is that it’s allowed me some really cool experiences. Whether for my streaming directly, or someone seeing/hearing me on a stream and thinking, “I’d like to work with them!”

So right now, you might see me on the Steam page for Void Salvage as they commissioned some recorded game play to help showcase the game. And later this year you might hear me as a voice in a video game. I can’t reveal any details now, but trust me, when it’s out, I won’t shut up about it!

There is recognition that human talent and creativity is still in demand, so I’ll keep being a goofball on the internet. And, I mean, if they’re gonna replace me with a computer, can I get a hot robot body? I’m just saying, hit me up, y’know? Let’s talk, at least! 🙂