Twitch defaults creator content into Amazon AI training
The switch has prompted backlash, and Twitch has not said whether any streamer material was already used.
Twitch, which Amazon bought in 2014 for nearly $1bn, has introduced a setting that by default allows Amazon to use channel content to train its generative AI models. The company says creators and other users can turn it off in their privacy settings.
The material covered is broad. Twitch says the toggle applies to streams, VODs, clips, stream chats, pictures and text on a channel, and users who opt out will keep those items out of future training of Amazon models that generate or synthesise text, audio, images or video. Twitch also says the change does not opt people out of all AI or machine-learning uses on the service, including AI-supported features such as captions and safety tools, and that chat posts in someone else’s stream are governed by the participant’s own opt-out preference.
TechCrunch reported that Twitch framed the update as “adding a setting that lets you opt out of having your channel content used to train generative AI content models across Amazon.” Chief product officer Mike Minton said an opt-in system would have been ineffective because, in his words, “nobody would opt in.” He also said the data collected for training would not be resold to other companies.
The announcement drew an immediate backlash. BBC reported hundreds of critical comments in Twitch’s stream chat, while a support-forum comment calling for the setting to be opt-in rather than opt-out drew nearly 14,000 upvotes. Mary Kish said data collection for AI training had become an industry standard, but added: “We don’t expect you to be happy or excited about this. I don’t expect anyone to react to this favourably.”
There is still uncertainty over how much, if any, creator content Amazon has already used. Minton said he did not know whether users’ data had been scraped for training, or what Amazon had used and what it had not used.
The move also echoes earlier comments from Twitch executives. In 2024, Minton said Twitch had a “role to play” in training Amazon’s generative AI models and that the company was using content in a prototyping capacity, not on a production scale.