Twitch Chief Product Officer Mike Minton kicked the hornet’s nest Thursday when he announced Amazon would use Twitch streams to train AI by default. From the BBC:
On why data was collected by default, [Minton] admitted: “If it’s opt-in, nobody would opt-in. That’s the honest answer.”
That is an honest answer. People did not like it. YouTube essayist and gaming personality Jacob Geller stated bluntly:
You may be thinking, why didn’t the waiter ask before putting shit in my food? Well, if we asked, no one would want to have shit in their food.
I’m not here to defend Amazon. I don’t have a strong opinion on training. I am here to defend it being on by default, because if Amazon wants to train, this is the only way to do it. In tech, the default setting is all that matters.
Users rarely change defaults. You see this trend over and over again. Give them an option, and the overwhelming majority’ll never use it.
One of the most striking examples was the Apple Maps debacle. When the iPhone launched in 2007, the “Maps” app was Google Maps. Google did and does make the best consumer navigation app.
But, Apple got annoyed with Mountain View because they wouldn’t bring turn-by-turn navigation to iOS. So when iOS 6 released, Cupertino replaced Google Maps with Apple Maps. Google’s app was demoted to the App Store.
Apple Maps had a rough launch. Tim Cook apologized for maps that relocated London to Ontario, hid train stations and made up airports. Hell, even the icon showed users driving off a bridge.
In 2026, I’d say Google Maps is 2-3x better than Apple Maps. Better non-US maps, more local business listings, great traffic data. In 2012, it was 100x better.
The craziest part was most people didn’t mind. An email revealed in Google’s antitrust trial said by 2014, Google had regained just 40% of its previous iOS users. That’s not nothing. It topped the App Store after Apple Maps’ launch.
But still! 60% of users couldn’t be bothered to download a navigation app that was approximately 100x better than the one that came with their phone. Google Maps was free! All people had to do was open the App Store and download it. What an incredible testament to the power of defaults.
No wonder Google pays Apple ~$20 billion a year to be the default search engine on iOS. They won’t make the same mistake again.