Google Pays $10 Million for Spirit Airlines' Data to Train AI

Google has agreed to pay $10 million for Spirit Airlines' vast business data after the airline went bankrupt in May. The massive dataset, which includes nearly 100 million passenger names and 13 million active email addresses, will help Google improve its AI models.

The raw data also includes 176,000 employee records and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages. A court-appointed third-party ombudsman will oversee a process called deidentification to anonymize the data, ensuring it cannot be linked to individuals.

Google spokespersons stated that they do not intend to receive any personal information from this dataset. The acquisition has raised concerns about what happens to privacy when a company goes bankrupt and its data is bought by AI firms.