Twitch has rolled out a new "feature" that trains Amazon's generative AI content models on its users' channels. The setting can be disabled, but it's turned on by default.
"Allow your channel content to train generative AI content models at Amazon," reads the setting, which is buried in your user settings and is enabled by default.
To disable the setting, navigate to the Security and Privacy tab of your Twitch user settings and uncheck the "Training for Generative AI" toggle. This will disable Twitch from using your channel content to train Amazon's AI models on that content, but does not opt you out of Amazon using your channel content for other uses, per the Twitch Privacy Notice.
While it's easy enough to disable, having this setting turned on by default is a slap in the face for users who don't want anything to do with generative AI. Notably, the top post on the Feature Requests section of Twitch's User Voice forums is an ask to make all AI features optional and opted out of by default. That post has more than 13,000 votes and 4,000 comments in support, compared to around 250 votes for the next three highest-voted suggestions. In a stream (on Twitch, of course) discussing the new setting, Twitch Chief Product Officer Mike Minton responded to criticism by saying the quiet part out loud. "If it was opt-in, nobody would opt in," Minton said. "So it's going to be on by default."
This comes as generative AI features (and the slop they churn out) seem to be worming their way into every aspect of our digital lives. Things have gotten so bad that Linkedin recently rolled out a feature to report content that carries the stink of AI slop.
Meanwhile, the datacenter infrastructure buildout to support and run these AI tools is the primary cause of the ongoing RAM crisis that has driven up the price of gaming hardware. AI is a bad deal for gamers that we didn't ask for – if we did, companies wouldn't have to make their sloppy "features" enabled by default.
Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.