Twitch Sued Over Amazon AI Training Setting
Twitch content creator Warren Pandiscia filed a class action lawsuit on August 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Twitch and its parent company Amazon. The suit targets a new "Generative AI Training" setting added on August 13 under the Security and Privacy tab. This setting, enabled by default, lets Amazon use channel content to train generative AI models, including those that convert audio to text and improve captions across Amazon services. Pandiscia argues that Twitch and Amazon used streamer content for AI training, development, and commercialization without adequate notice or consent, exceeding what Twitch's Privacy Notice allowed. He also claims the companies violated the good faith principle and unfairly profited from user content. The complaint requests class certification, appointment of Pandiscia as class representative, a declaration that the actions were unlawful, disgorgement of profits, damages, and injunctive relief to stop AI training. Twitch Chief Product Officer Mike Minton said the setting was opt-out because an opt-in approach would result in no one permitting use. Even users who opt out may still have their content used if displayed on channels that have not opted out.