Amazon 'freeloads' streaming content to train AI, Twitch faces class action

Odaily News – Twitch, the well-known game streaming platform, is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it used streamers' broadcasts, clips, chat logs, and photos to train parent company Amazon's generative AI models without consent or compensation. The lead plaintiff, Warren Pandiscia, a streamer with around a thousand followers, filed a 37-page complaint last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the platform of breaching creators' implied agreements and state unfair competition laws.

This lawsuit also marks the first public confirmation that Amazon has indeed been using Twitch content to train its own AI models. The tech giant acquired Twitch for nearly $1 billion in 2014 and has since ramped up its AI investments in an attempt to catch up with competitors like Google and Meta. It remains unclear when Amazon began collecting this data or how much content has actually been used for model training. (Engadget)

It has also been reported that Twitch has been integrated into prediction market platforms such as Polymarket, primarily for real-time streaming of esports matches. Currently, there are over 500 prediction markets on Polymarket that rely on Twitch streams.