Google is apparently offering developers money to buy access to the code written for their Android apps on the Play Store. This is being done so that Google can use the code to train its AI. This comes from a report out of 404 Media, which says that some developers are getting an email with the subject “join a confidential content offer pilot”.
The email says that developers will be able to “generate additional revenue from your apps.” Apparently, this email is really only being sent out to developers of Android apps that have millions of downloads.
In this email, Google also says that they want to buy access to developers’ codebases “to improve Google’s developer tools and products.” However, according to this report, the email does not mention artificial intelligence at all. But a link in the email goes to a page about “partnerships to improve our AI products.”
Basically, Google wants to give you money to feed your code to its AI. Depending on the amount of money Google is paying, some developers might jump on board. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that Google paid Reddit $60 million for access to Reddit to train its AI.
This shouldn’t be a huge surprise
Unfortunately, Google looking to use developers’ codebase to train its AI, really shouldn’t be a surprise. The surprise here is that they’re actually going to pay developers money to do this.
Google has been using the web for years to train its AI, including news sites like yours truly. It’s a big reason why publishers are so against AI, as it is taking away traffic from websites, which also means its taking money away.
Though Google is being a bit shady about this, in the email. They definitely need to be more upfront about what this “opportunity” is really about.
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