Think twice the next time you post something potentially rude or harmful in Twitch chat, because the streaming site is beginning to use AI to detect “offensive or disrespectful” language.
Twitch’s support account on Twitter/X revealed today that “over the next few weeks” it will be experimenting with a new feature that will attempt to detect potentially negative messages to filter out the bad vibes—and potentially help prevent you from getting banned.
“We’re rolling out an experimental prompt powered by machine learning that encourages users to pause before sending chat messages that are potentially harmful,” Twitch said. “Our goal with this experiment is to help decrease harassment and facilitate more positive interactions on Twitch.”
The vague example given by Twitch shows a message prompt that pops up when you attempt to send the message in question, asking “are you sure you want to send this?” It warns that “your message may contain words that could be considered offensive or disrespectful,” and gives the user the opportunity to back out of the message or “send anyway.”
Odds are that if someone is trying to be an ass in a Twitch chat, they will just bypass the message and say what they wanted to say. But the interesting part will be to see how this “machine learning” detects the language and how off-base or correct it is in practice after a few weeks of this trial experiment.
The example message of “you are a butthead” will probably be the first thing I type out the next time I watch a stream to see if the machine learning is indeed learning. Now all I have to do is find someone who is streaming and is a butthead. Shouldn’t be too difficult!
Twitch says to “stay tuned for more updates in this area soon,” but this is a general good reminder to keep in mind that everything you type on Twitch is logged and saved—even whispers, as Dr Disrespect previously found out.
