Twitch faces backlash over Amazon training AI on its users’ livestreams
28 minutes ago
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Twitch is now allowing users to stop Amazon from training their generative artificial intelligence (AI) modelsusing users’ content,the popular streaming platform said
The US company said users canopt out of a default setting that allows Amazon to use streams, clips, images, chatsand other channel content
The announcement on Wednesday confirmed that the technology giant, which took over Twitch in 2014, was using the platform’s content for AI training, prompting widespread backlash from users
Amazon runs a host of AI services and has heavily invested in the its development as it seeks to compete with Google, Meta andother technology giants
The BBC has contacted Amazon for comment and Twitch for more information
Twitch is a major livestreaming platform that is especially popular among gamers and youths. The platform’s top content creators have tens of millions of followers
AI training collection has been turned on by default just as it is on most content services, but Twitch is “respecting” users’ wishes to opt out if they prefer, Twitch’s chief product officer Mike Minton said during a stream on the platform
Asked why data is being collected by default, he said: “If it’s opt-in, nobody would opt-in. That’s the honest answer.”
Users who remain opted in could have any of their channel content used for training, Minton said, adding that the data collected will not be re-sold to other companies
During the same session, Mary Kish, head of community at Twitch, took viewers through a tutorial on how to disable generative AI training through a user’s channel settings
Data collection for AI training has become an industry standard, Kish said
“We don’t expect you to be happy or excited about this. I don’t expect anyone to react to this favourably,” she added
The stream’s chat column was flooded with hundreds of comments from users criticising the move
One viewer wrote: “Nobody would opt in because nobody wants to feed AI with our creativity and content.”
Another said Twitch had an “opportunity to set an industry standard” to push back against data collection for AI
It is not clear when Amazon began collecting Twitch users’ data to train its AI models
Minton said during the stream that he did not know if users’ data had already been scraped for training, adding that he was unsure what Amazon “has done in terms of model training and what they’ve used and not used.”
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