Home / Business and Economy / Google Buys Spirit Airlines Data for $10M AI Training
Google Buys Spirit Airlines Data for $10M AI Training
22 Aug
Summary
- Google acquired Spirit Airlines' data for $10 million in a bankruptcy auction.
- The data includes millions of emails, Teams items, and lines of code.
- A union objects, citing privacy concerns for employees, while a rival bid emerged.
Google has won a bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines' extensive internal business data, with a winning bid of $10 million. This data trove is intended for training AI models and includes around 100 million emails, millions of Microsoft Teams items, and approximately 30 million lines of code.
The sale, however, has encountered significant obstacles. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has lodged an objection, asserting that the privacy terms inadequately protect employee data compared to customer information. A competing bid of $12.5 million has also emerged, complicating Google's acquisition.
Spirit Airlines' vast collection of operational and employee records, dating back decades, represents a valuable resource for AI development, especially amid a shortage of subject-matter experts. Google's strategic interest also extends to leveraging the data for insights into travel search and competitive pricing within the low-cost airline market.
While Google states the data will be rigorously scrubbed of personally identifiable information by a third party, the privacy debate remains a critical hurdle. The outcome of the sale is subject to a court hearing scheduled for September 9.
