With generative AI in games, the contempt is a feature, not a bug

It can be exhausting to deal with the onslaught of AI optimism from marketing firms, executives, and advocates for the technology. There are long-standing concerns about generative AI: environmental, social, and professional – but all of these are swept under the rug with the promise that everything will be easier and more comfortable. That’s the party line, but as people keep protesting against the push, the mask occasionally slips.

Twitch announced that the livestreams on their platform would be scraped and used for AI training data; users can opt-out, but it takes a little legwork to find the toggle. In a follow-up stream with Twitch chief product officer Mike Minton and head of community Mary Kish, Minton commented on the choice to make the feature opt-in by default. “That’s what everyone here is spamming in chat, I get it,” he said. “There’s an honest answer, and I think most of you can probably appreciate this: If it was opt-in, nobody would opt in. That’s honestly the answer.”I can certainly appreciate the honesty, in the same way I appreciate that a guy mugging me on the street would very much like to have my money. Kish later added, “Going other places won’t absolve you of this [...] this is something that’s really across the board. It’s something that’s happening on livestreaming communities across the space.”

It’s incredibly grim to roll out this line of communication around a new feature. Minton and Kish were sent to try to justify something that nobody wants, and their justification was that they knew nobody would want this, but everyone is doing it, and Amazon is pushing it, so… Just deal with it. Twitch has a captive audience, and they feel comfortable mining their streams and simply tanking the pushback.