Google offers $10 million for Spirit Airlines data to train AI

Google has offered $10 million for corporate records created by Spirit Airlines before the carrier filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported.

The data includes about 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, payroll records, employee training materials, and information on fares, inflight purchases, and operations.

The transaction may be the first time a bankruptcy court has been asked to approve the sale of corporate data for training an AI model, according to experts cited by Bloomberg.

Google outbid AI-training startup Mercor and another undisclosed bidder in an auction lasting about two and a half hours. The sale highlights how AI companies are looking to bankrupt businesses for large stores of specialized data.

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