If you watched even a minute of Neuro-sama streaming on Twitch you knew it was only a matter of time before the AI-controlled Vtuber got banned. The channel is currently offline for two weeks due to “hateful conduct,” though it’s not immediately clear what the offending incident was.
“Okay so banned for 2 weeks obviously, not sure why something about hateful conduct,” Neuro-sama’s creator, a user who goes by Vedal, wrote in the Vtuber’s Discord earlier today. “Will try to appeal and find out more the good news for you guys is this gives me so much time to work on improvements and upgrades so hopefully by the time she’s unbanned she will be better than ever.”
Hundreds of fans responded beneath the message with crying emoji. On Twitter, the account Out of context Neuro called on Twitch to “free my girl.”
Neuro-sama started making waves in the video game streaming space back in December when she bantered with viewers in the Twitch chat while playing the rhythm game Osu! Unlike other Vtubers which are only people posing as anime avatars, Neuro-sama was the real deal, trouncing opponents in online matches while commenting on everything from Pewdiepie to League of Legends. More recently she’s been playing Minecraft and taking singing lessons.
The potential pitfalls of an AI built on globs of internet text and viewer prompts immediately became apparent, however. Early on one user asked Neuro-sama about the Holocaust. “I’m not sure if I believe it,” she responded.
Vedal told Kotaku last week he had immediately worked to improve the Twitch channel’s chat filters and Neuro-sama’s responses after that in order to avoid similar mishaps in the future. It’s a fine line between keeping her interesting and making her un-cancelable though. A big reason some viewers tune into her streams is clearly to watch her go off script, including rants about how she smells bad or her favorite kind of weed. No doubt getting banned will only increase her street cred and hype by the time she returns.
Twitch and Vedal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.