Twitch confirms Amazon will train AI on streamer content by default, sparking major backlash

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Twitch has confirmed that Amazon will train generative AI models on streamers' content by default, triggering immediate and furious backlash from a creator community that Twitch itself openly acknowledges is largely opposed to generative AI in the first place

The company announced the change by framing it not as Amazon starting to train on user content, but as adding a setting that lets you opt out of having your channel content used to train generative AI content models across Amazon, that framing choice alone tells you Twitch anticipated exactly the reaction it got, the actual toggle, labelled allow your channel content to train generative AI content models at Amazon, defaults to on for every user and sits buried inside the security and privacy tab of account settings rather than the creator dashboard where most streamers would think to look for it, according to Twitch's own FAQ, the training covers streams, VODs, clips, stream chats, and pictures and text on a channel, and Twitch was explicit that opting out only stops that specific use, AI powered features like automated captions and AutoMod moderation continue running regardless of the toggle

Twitch Chief Product Officer Mike Minton addressed the backlash directly on a livestream, and his own explanation for the default setting was genuinely blunt, if this was opt-in, nobody would opt in, he said, that's honestly the answer, when a user asked whether their existing content had already been used for training before the announcement, Minton admitted he genuinely did not know, saying I don't actually know the answer to that question because I don't know what Amazon has done in terms of model training and what they've used and not used, Twitch's Head of Community Mary Kish separately acknowledged the company knew this would land badly, telling viewers we don't expect you to be happy or excited about this, I don't expect anyone to react to this favorably, the live chat during that stream was reportedly awash with hundreds of anti-AI messages

The reaction has been swift and organized, a suggestion on Twitch's own public UserVoice feedback forum calling for the policy to be reversed had gathered roughly 13,000 votes within days, and several high profile streamers took to social media criticizing both the AI training itself and the opt out default specifically, one particularly telling exchange saw Minton admit he had no clear answer for what happens when someone streams alongside another creator who hasn't opted out, and confirmed Twitch currently has no plans to let users easily see which channels have opted in or out at all, when a commenter pointed out that community feedback had been overwhelmingly negative, Minton responded not tone deaf here in terms of knowing where the community stands, feedback has been quite clear

For context on why this specific dataset matters so much to Amazon, Twitch archives represent thousands of hours of largely unscripted, natural audio and video content captured across countless hours of live broadcasting, a genuinely difficult dataset to replicate through any other means, which is exactly why Twitch executives have reportedly been discussing using streamer content for AI training for some time even before this public announcement

Twitch faces backlash over Amazon using content to train AIwww.bbc.co.uk