This Bot Turns Reddit Beefs Into 'Phoenix Wright' Trials

Random pieces of internet drama are good fodder for songs, based on the output of musician Lubalin on TikTok. A programmer made a bot that shows that arguing on the internet is also a great way to write dialogue for courtroom video game Phoenix Wright.

Phoenix Wright is a detective game that takes place in a dystopian version of the future where the legal system is more a form of entertainment than a system of checks and balances to maintain society. It has a slapstick quality to it—by the time you've gathered enough clues for each murder mystery to have a trial, you also have to present all your evidence at the right times to rebut your rival lawyer, Miles Edgeworth. You're essentially having a loud, performative argument. If this already sounds like what it's like to argue on the internet, check out this video below:

Objection Bot is a Reddit bot that, once triggered, makes a video out of a comment chain on Reddit. It assigns the most frequent commenter the avatar of Phoenix, the second most frequent commenter becomes Edgeworth, and other commenters are random Phoenix Wright characters. According to the bots programmer, who goes by Micah, it uses a neural net to check for tone, assigning positive sprites to comments the bot interprets as positive, and turning the most negative comments into an objection. While the author of the bot says it's pretty buggy, it still has created some very entertaining videos.

Objection Bot won't work on every subreddit, but Micah has supplied a list of subreddits that it does work on. Unsurprisingly a lot of video game subreddits are on that list. Apex Legends players, I am relying on you to trigger this bot whenever an update to the game gets you tilted.