It’s enabled by default because, according to the Amazon-owned streaming service, if it were an optional feature, no one would use it.

Twitch has announced that it will use content from streams to train generative AI content models across Amazon’s entire system. By default, everyone automatically participates in the training programme. Rumours about the AI training programme had been circulating for at least a few weeks (streamer Zach Bussey mentioned it back in July), but the news was recently confirmed — albeit very indirectly — by an announcement posted on Twitter by Twitch’s customer service team, which described a setting that allows streamers to opt out of the programme. This means that the default setting is to automatically join, a decision that has not been met with unanimous approval. The responses have overwhelmingly been either instructions on how to turn off AI training or enthusiastic cursing. Mike Minton, Twitch’s director of product development, gave an unexpectedly candid answer when asked why the new generative AI training system was enabled by default during a live stream. He thereby confirmed that Twitch is well aware of what people actually think about it: if given a choice, no one would choose it.

We've added a setting that lets you opt out of having your channel content used to train generative AI content models across Amazon.

Click here to learn more:https://t.co/C3G0Jt6m0D

— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) August 12, 2026

Just want to be clear. This lets you opt out of Amazon's Generative AI content model training. Twitch is not training GenAI models on streamer content.

— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) August 12, 2026

Opting out of Twitch’s generative AI training programme is straightforward. Simply open the ‘Security and Privacy’ tab in Twitch’s settings and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the ‘Generative AI Training’ toggle. However, ease of use is meaningless if people don’t know it exists, and it seems that Twitch isn’t making much of an effort to ensure that everyone is aware of this option. Introducing the new system on the Twitch Support channel as part of a post about a related feature rather than making a traditional announcement on the Twitch blog can hardly be considered a high-visibility method of spreading the news. Furthermore, a response to a recent post by Bussey about the feature muddied the waters by stating that Twitch does not use streamers’ content to train generative AI models. However, Twitch’s FAQ on account settings indicates that this is exactly what it does. Under the question ‘What are generative AI content models, and what does it mean that my content is used to train them?’, Twitch wrote the following:

“Generative AI content models are AI tools that can create or synthesise content such as text or images when given instructions or prompts, because they are also trained on content. Allowing training means that your content may be used to improve future Gen AI models. For example, your audio could help refine speech-to-text models, which would improve captions on Twitch and across Amazon,” wrote Twitch.

This seems pretty clear, but what does that statement on Twitter mean? Perhaps Twitch is trying to claim that Amazon, rather than Twitch itself, uses streamers’ content to train generative AI models — which is a completely meaningless distinction, given that Twitch is part of Amazon. The FAQ also notes that opting out of generative AI training does not mean you’ll be excluded from all AI or machine learning uses on Twitch. The platform may still use the data, including streams, VODs and everything else, for AI-powered features such as automatically generated captions. However, this data will not be used to train models capable of generating new content.

Source: PCGamer, Bsky, Twitch User Voice, Twitch, Twitch FAQ