Twitch adds opt-out option for Amazon generative AI training

Twitch now lets users opt out of Amazon’s use of content from their channels to train Amazon’s “generative AI content models.” The change, announced today, comes more than two years after a company executive confirmed that Amazon was using Twitch content for AI training.

In an updated support page, Twitch confirms that users must opt out if they don’t want their “streams, VODs, clips, stream chats, and pictures and text on your channel [to] be used in future training of a model developed by Amazon whose purpose is to generate or synthesize text, audio, images, or video.”

To opt out, users must go to the proper settings at www.twitch.tv/settings/security.

The support page adds:

When you allow training, that means that your content may be used for future Gen AI model improvements. An example of what happens when you allow your content to be used for training a Gen AI content model is that your audio might help refine models that create speech to text, which would help improve captions at Twitch but would also help improve captions across Amazon.

Twitch users are automatically opted in to AI training and seemingly have been for at least a couple of years. When asked at an event that news publication The Information held in 2024 if Amazon uses Twitch to train AI models, Twitch’s chief monetization officer at the time, Mike Minton, said, “Yeah, for sure.” He added: “I mean, I think obviously within the bounds of user trust within the bounds of privacy regulations, which vary all around the world, but of course we have a role to play in that.”

Still, online discussion, including some occurring just days before today’s announcement, points to a lack of awareness and uncertainty around Amazon’s use of Twitch content.

Ars Technica asked Twitch how long Amazon, which bought Twitch in 2014, has used content on the platform for AI training. We’ll update this article if we get a response.

Some users may not want their Twitch content used to train Amazon AI because of a lack of financial benefit, concerns that AI could cannibalize their business, or an aversion to the broader Amazon conglomerate. Others may be comfortable with their work being used for AI development.

In either case, Twitch users now have more control over the matter. However, automatically opting users into AI training, along with a lack of transparency, means some will remain skeptical about Amazon leveraging user-generated content this way.