This shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone, but Twitch streamers have been training generative AI models simply by going live on the platform. And now you can opt out of doing it.
The company announced today that it has added a setting “that lets you opt out of having your channel content used to train generative AI content models across Amazon.” Isn’t that lovely?
“Allow your channel content to train generative AI content models at Amazon,” the setting reads. Turning this off does not opt you out of Twitch and Amazon using your channel “content for other purposes described in the Twitch Privacy Notice, including using AI-supported Twitch features that benefit the community by facilitating streamer growth and monetization (such as real-time sponsorship campaign assistance), viewer discovery (such as recommendations), and community safety (such as AutoMod).”
As you’d imagine, the post about the subject on social media has been met with universal furor. Streamers and viewers alike are wondering why the feature is opt-out and not opt-in, and many others are agreeing that it shouldn’t even be a feature in the first place. But alas, this is the age we live in, and Twitch being under the Amazon curtain comes with all sorts of corporate love such as this.
“Can I ask why this shit is on by default and you’re making people actively opt out rather than vice versa, when many community members have constantly vocalized against this development,” said popular VTuber Shoto.
“On by default is criminal,” streamer KittyRawr agreed. “The AI narrative push is so draining my goodness.”
“On by default is malicious of you, constantly disappointed with these decisions that go against the wishes of the community,” said VTuber PorcelainMaid.
You can turn off the setting by navigating to your Security and Privacy tab in your Twitch Settings, and deselecting “Training for Generative AI.” Twitch said it will be “discussing this and more” on a live stream today at 2pm CT on the site that at one point was about playing video games.
Yeah, this really is draining.
Update on Aug. 12 at 4:45pm CT: Twitch representatives said the company isn’t sure if VODs were already used to train Amazon models. Additionally, it won’t make the feature opt-in because then nobody would voluntarily choose to do it. Yeah. Wow.
Check out the clips below:
