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The streaming platform Twitch<\/a> will now use creators\u2019 content<\/a> to help train generative AI models for its parent company, Amazon. This move has inspired swift and concentrated backlash from the Twitch community, especially because creators are opted in to having their content used for this AI training by default.<\/p>\n For Amazon, these stream recordings are incredibly valuable, offering thousands of hours of audio and video content to help train AI models. But Twitch users worry that since creators have to manually opt out, they might be surrendering their content to train Amazon\u2019s AI content models without even knowing it. This is especially concerning on a platform like Twitch, where creators are often recording livestreams of themselves and their voices for many hours per week.<\/p>\n In a stream<\/a> on the official Twitch channel, Twitch Head of Community Mary Kish and Chief Product Officer Mike Minton addressed a live audience of nearly 3,000 aggrieved users, many of whom were posting anti-AI sentiments in the chat.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy is it not opt-in? That\u2019s what everybody is spamming in chat. I get it. \u2018Let me opt in versus making me opt out,\u2019\u201d Minton said. \u201cWell, there\u2019s an honest answer\u2026 If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in. That\u2019s honestly the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Twitch knows that its community of streamers is largely opposed to the use of generative AI, since the most prevalent generative AI products are trained on books, images, videos, and other materials scraped from the internet without consent. <\/p>\n Even Twitch\u2019s approach to breaking this news shows that the company is braced for backlash. Instead of telling the community that Amazon would begin training on Twitch users\u2019 content, Twitch framed<\/a> this change as \u201c[adding] a setting that lets you opt out of having your channel content used to train generative AI content models across Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n In some cases, this created confusion among streamers about whether their content had already been fed to Amazon without their knowledge. When one user asked if their videos had already been used for training, Minton responded, \u201cI don\u2019t actually know the answer to that question because I don\u2019t know what Amazon [\u2026] has done in terms of model training and what they\u2019ve used and not used.\u201d<\/p>\n Kish noted that Twitch is not unique in its use of user content for AI training. Meta, for example, uses public content from its platforms to train its own AI models,<\/a> meaning that if your Facebook and Instagram accounts are public, then your data has probably already been used for Meta\u2019s AI training. (If you live in the U.K.<\/a>, you can opt out of Meta\u2019s training \u2014 if not, the only way to \u201copt out\u201d is to use private settings, which isn\u2019t feasible for creators who monetize their accounts.)<\/p>\n Kish said that even including an opt-out option on Twitch is \u201ca reflection of reacting to this community\u2019s voice that you are not wanting to train Gen AI models, and we want to give you that option.\u201d<\/p>\n To opt out of AI training on Twitch, users can navigate to their channel settings (not the creator dashboard), select the security and privacy tab, scroll down to the option \u201ctraining for generative AI,\u201d and toggle it off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n