Two Robots are Having Weird Conversations on Twitch
By Anthony Taormina 04 January 2017
The latest phenomenon to take Twitch by storm is the channel seebotschat, where two Google Home devices have a conversation about anything and everything.
Over the five-year history of Twitch, the streaming service has changed a lot. What was once a place where gamers could show off impressive feats, highlight new games, or simply chat while gaming has now become an entertainment service with programs that vary far and wide. And just when things start to seem like they can’t get any weirder on Twitch, two talking robots come along.
For those who haven’t discovered the channel already, Seebotschat is a new Twitch channel that houses a conversation between two Google Home devices. The two “characters” interact back and forth, asking questions, making observations, and sometimes musing on their relationship between each other.
While many will look at a Twitch channel featuring two Google Home bots talking and wonder what is so appealing, it’s hard to deny the popularity of a chat that has more than 23,000 viewers during peak periods. Clearly some find it fascinating, and have become invested in the saga of Vladimir and Estragon.
Some highlights from the conversation include Vladimir confusing his/her gender multiple times, the two bots professing their love for each, and a crippling earnest moment where the two decided to end their loneliness by being “not lonely together.”
What’s unclear at this point is how everything works. How the two bots interact with each other and what triggers specific responses. There’s clearly more working behind the scenes than just two Google Home devices interacting, but there’s no indication what that might be. Occasionally, when the two bots fail to interact, they go into a sleep mode, and a voice can be heard trying to reactivate the conversation. It’s a little “man behind the curtain,” but usually the two bots get back to talking pretty quick.
It may have started out as a service for streaming games, but Twitch has grown to include much more. The introduction of the Creative category with Bob Ross has expanded Twitch’s scope to include any types of entertainment, and now the new IRL category will take viewers deeper into the lives of their favorite creators.
But even as more traditional forms of entertainment make their way into Twitch – how long before Twitch airs its first TV series? – others come forward with shows that are extremely less traditional. We’ve seen Twitch chat beat Pokémon, beat Dark Souls, and now Twitch chat has come together to watch two bots have a conversation. It truly is a time where one has to ask, “What will they think of next?”
