In brief
Twitch, Amazon’s streaming arm, has introduced an opt‑out feature that lets creators block their content from being used in AI training. The change follows backlash after it was discovered that Amazon was collecting livestreams, clips, images and chats by default. Twitch’s chief product officer justified the default setting as a pragmatic approach, noting that no data will be sold to third parties. Creators and viewers reacted with mixed emotions, but the new feature offers them control over their creative output.
Twitch, the live‑streaming platform owned by Amazon, announced that users can now block the tech giant from using their videos, clips, images, chats and other channel content to train AI models.
The platform had been collecting user content by default to feed Amazon’s generative‑AI systems, drawing criticism from creators who felt their creative output was being commodified without consent.
“If it’s opt‑in, nobody would opt‑in,” said Twitch’s chief product officer Mike Minton during a live stream, after explaining how channel owners can disable AI training via settings. He added that any data used would not be resold to third parties.
The change, announced mid‑week, gives streamers full control to keep their content private or share it only for the platform’s internal purposes.
Viewers flooded the chat with feedback, ranging from praise for respecting creators to frustration that the option “only exists” because it’s switched on by default.
Amazon’s exact start date for collecting Twitch data remains unclear, and Twitch remains uncertain about how much content may already have been used for AI training.
