Technology: 97.5 million passenger data for ten million dollars: AI companies buying large data packages from insolvent companies

Frankfurt - Ten million dollars was paid by the technology conglomerate Google for internal communication data of the insolvent US airline Spirit. The US startup Micro1 is even prepared to pay 12.5 million dollars. Spirit recently sold 27 older Airbus aircraft for 668 million dollars, roughly 25 million dollars per aircraft. Data seems to be almost as valuable as an aircraft.

Google and Micro1 aim to use the information to train their AI systems. And Spirit may not be the only company whose data they or other tech firms buy. "It is a new business model, in the process of AI development to prepare and make large amounts of data available," says Nils Rauer, an expert in AI law at the law firm Pinsent Masons.

However, this practice faces resistance. Former business partners, employees, and customers of insolvent companies fear that their data will also leak and confidential information will be disclosed. In the case of Spirit, the German airline Lufthansa had the data packages checked, as lawyers of employees and consumer advocates want to prevent the sale from going through legally.