Google Buys Spirit Airlines Data for AI Training in $10 Million Deal

Google has acquired a massive dataset from Spirit Airlines for AI training. The data includes hundreds of millions of Microsoft Teams chats, over 100 million emails, and information related to revenue, aircraft operations, employee productivity, audits, and fraud. This dataset was purchased at a bankruptcy auction where Google bid $10 million.

The airline shut down earlier this year due to financial struggles, including skyrocketing fuel costs during the Iran conflict. Google's interest in the data is for AI model training, not aviation-related purposes. The company assured that the data will be scrubbed of personal identifiable information before use.

The dataset includes a wide range of business-related data such as marketing campaigns, human resources strategies, and project management records. It also contains pricing from over 7 billion competitor flights, around 7.5 billion passenger transaction records spanning nearly two decades of operations, and more than 30 million lines of code.