Twitch Turns On Amazon AI Training by Default: 'Nobody Would Opt In'

In brief

• Twitch has begun letting Amazon use streamer content to train generative AI models, with the setting switched on by default.
• Chief product officer Mike Minton said it was made opt-out because "if it was opt-in, nobody would opt in."
• Turning it off does not stop Twitch using channel content for captions, recommendations, moderation and other AI features.

Twitch has started allowing Amazon to train generative AI models on the work of the people who stream on it, with the setting enabled by default.

The Amazon-owned platform announced the change on Wednesday as the addition of a control, telling users it had added a setting that lets them opt out of having channel content used to train generative AI models across Amazon. The framing carried the news that the training was happening at all, though streamers had reported in late July that “multiple sources” had told them the move was imminent.

Everything on a channel is in scope, with streams, videos on demand, clips, highlights, chat, text and images all usable to train models whose purpose, in Twitch's words, is to generate or synthesize text, audio, images or video. Its own FAQ offers the example of a streamer's audio being used to refine speech-to-text models, improving captions on Twitch and across Amazon.