Twitch Sparks Backlash For Enrolling Streamers In Amazon AI Training

Amazon's Twitch streaming service is dealing with unhappy users after the company's latest policy change, which automatically enables AI training for Amazon's models using whatever content a user generates. While many have been angered by this move, it's at least possible to opt out by digging into the settings panel within the Twitch app or on the desktop site.

In a livestream with its head of community, chief product officer Mike Minton explained the rationale behind the decision to opt in all users into the generative AI training. "Well, there's an honest answer, and I think most of you probably can appreciate this. Like, if it was opt in, nobody would opt in. That's honestly the answer."


The backlash has been swift, with users sharing with one another how to find the option buried in Twitch's account settings menu to opt out from having their content used to train AI models. If you'd like to do this, head on over to your account settings, choose "Security and Privacy," scroll to the bottom where you'll find the "Privacy" section and you'll see a toggle to enable or disable "Training for Generative AI."

It's important to note that some users have found it easier to make the setting stick when using the desktop site versus the mobile app. However, even on the desktop site many have reported that the generative AI setting re-enables itself when checking on it again. If this happens to you it seems as if the best option is to set the toggle to off, wait a few seconds and then refresh to see if the change sticks.

It's unfortunate that Amazon chose to implement its generative AI training policy in this fashion, because there were so many other options that wouldn't have gotten as much backlash. It could've offered extra perks, or even compensation, to entice users to voluntarily opt in. Efforts like this simply serve to create more ill will towards the technology, which is wildly unpopular with the youth demographic that drives so much of Twitch's traffic. An olive branch in the form of "opt-in with perks" could have been a major PR win for the company.