Twitch will train Amazon AI on streamers by default, opt-out required

Twitch announced on August 12, 2026 that it will use streamers’ content to train Amazon’s generative AI models by default, requiring creators to manually opt out. The decision drew immediate criticism from the platform’s community, with many users expressing anti-AI sentiments during a livestream on the official Twitch channel.

Twitch Head of Community Mary Kish and Chief Product Officer Mike Minton addressed nearly 3,000 viewers in the stream. When asked why the program is not opt-in, Minton said, “If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in. That’s honestly the answer.” The company framed the change as adding a setting to opt out of having channel content used for AI training across Amazon.

The move matters because Twitch creators often broadcast themselves and their voices for many hours each week, generating thousands of hours of audio and video that are valuable for training AI models. Many streamers worry they may unknowingly surrender their content, especially since the most prevalent generative AI products are trained on internet-scraped materials without consent.

Kish noted that Twitch is not unique: Meta uses public content from Facebook and Instagram to train its own AI models. In the U.K., users can opt out of Meta’s training; elsewhere, the only way to avoid it is to use private settings, which is not feasible for creators who monetize their accounts. Kish said Twitch’s opt-out option reflects the community’s voice against training generative AI models.

To opt out, users must go to channel settings, select the security and privacy tab, scroll to “training for generative AI,” and toggle it off. When one user asked if their videos had already been used for training, Minton said, “I don’t actually know the answer to that question because I don’t know what Amazon has done in terms of model training and what they’ve used and not used.”

The announcement has sparked confusion and backlash, and Twitch appears braced for further criticism. The company has not stated whether it will reconsider the default opt-in policy or provide additional clarity on Amazon’s prior use of streamer content.