Twitch sparks gamer fury over Amazon AI data deal
PARIS: Livestream gaming giant Twitch has raised hackles among its millions of users after declaring it will share their data with its parent company Amazon, to better train the online retailer’s AI models.
The popular livestream gaming platform Twitch has recently sparked outrage among its vast user base after announcing plans to share their data with the parent company Amazon. The primary objective is to enhance Amazon's AI models for various platforms. In a post on X, Twitch revealed that users could opt out of data sharing, but otherwise, their live audio, text, images, and other content would be utilized for AI training across Amazon's services.
The company's chief product officer, Mike Minton, defended the decision during a live chat on Twitch, stating that opting users in by default is commonplace in the industry. However, gamers have swiftly criticized the policy, deeming it an unethical invasion of their privacy. Users have expressed their discontent on X, questioning why they should provide content for free to support AI training.
This move marks a new battleground in the ongoing struggle to safeguard online privacy as AI firms continue to seek data to improve their models. Amazon and Twitch are not the first to employ user data to build AI models, as Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, also announced last year that all public comments on its platforms, except for WhatsApp, would be used to train AI models unless users opted out.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
