On 8/12/26 Twitch announced that it had automatically opted all of its user accounts into using all content from their channels for training Amazon's generative “AI” models. I checked my settings and confirmed that I had indeed been opted in without my knowledge or consent.

They didn't send us an email or notify us within Twitch. They posted about it on X, a platform I don't use, acting like they were doing us a favor by allowing us to opt out. Furthermore, they made it opt-out knowing most of us are skeptical about “AI” and would never opt in – and they don't care.

This is a gross violation of privacy and betrayal of trust. Therefore, because they clearly do not respect their users, I am quitting Twitch both as a streamer and viewer.

I have had some genuinely wonderful experiences on Twitch connecting with people and sharing a love of music. But those precious human experiences are being exploited, monetized, and manipulated by the likes of Twitch and Amazon and I just can't be a part of that anymore.

At some point, we have to stop merely declaring that what these Big Tech companies are doing is wrong, and we have to take action. The only action we can really take as individuals: boycott.

I will be streaming on PeerTube in the near term and hopefully will transition to Owncast soon. See my profile page for links.

arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/twi…

windowscentral.com/artificial-…

404media.co/twitch-training-am…

#twitch #AI #amazon #peerTube #Owncast #bigTech #tech

🏦 TIL: Five US tech giants are carrying $1.65 trillion in AI-related obligations that don't appear on their balance sheets, more than the $1.35 trillion that does.

A Nikkei study of Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle found this invisible debt has grown 8x in four years. It's future payment obligations: data center leases, GPU supply contracts, and SPV financing, disclosed only in the footnotes.

The mechanics are legal but eye-opening. Meta's $27B Hyperion data center in Louisiana is owned by a joint venture (Meta 20%, Blue Owl Capital 80%) that raised the debt from Pimco, BlackRock, and Apollo. Meta leases it back in 4-year blocks so it stays an operating expense, not debt. Oracle's off-book commitments grew 30x in four years, much of it for the Stargate project with OpenAI.

The catch: when these facilities go live, the leases roll onto the balance sheet at once. If AI demand falls short, the losses land on lenders and insurers (including, indirectly, annuity holders).

Meanwhile Apple, which sat out the AI buildout, sued OpenAI for trade secret theft on July 10.

Read more:
asia.nikkei.com/business/techn…
financialpost.com/financial-ti…
techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/appl…

#AI #BigTech #finance