Twitch auto-opts streamers into Amazon AI training, sparking backlash

Twitch has quietly introduced a policy that allows Amazon to train generative AI models on streamers’ content by default, forcing creators to navigate to their channel settings and manually toggle off a new “training for generative AI” option. The announcement, framed as “[adding] a setting that lets you opt out,” angered the streaming community, especially since many creators broadcast hours of personal audio and video each week. In a live stream addressing the backlash, Twitch’s Head of Community Mary Kish and Chief Product Officer Mike Minton faced nearly 3,000 aggrieved users spamming anti-AI sentiments. When asked why the feature wasn’t opt-in, Minton candidly replied, “If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in. That’s honestly the answer.”

Minton also admitted he didn’t know whether Twitch users’ content had already been used for Amazon’s model training, deepening concerns about retroactive data use. Kish defended the move by pointing out that Meta similarly trains AI on public Facebook and Instagram content, and that offering an opt-out was a concession to community pressure. Still, the default-opt-in approach means many streamers may unknowingly surrender their content to Amazon’s AI models. To opt out, users must go to channel settings (not the creator dashboard), select Security & Privacy, scroll to “training for generative AI,” and deactivate it.