Federal Officials Expressed Concern Over Amazon's AI Training on Government Data
U.S. federal officials briefly worried that Amazon might train its AI on government data, documents reveal. The incident highlights agencies' reliance on cloud providers and potential risks in contract terms.
Federal officials expressed temporary concern that Amazon could potentially train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems using government data, according to documents obtained by Fast Company. The incident underscores the increasing dependence of U.S. federal agencies on major cloud service providers like Amazon for hosting sensitive software and data.
The concerns surfaced in early 2024 when an IT official at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted Amazon's updated terms of service. These updates, the official wrote, could allow data usage outside a client's environment and even outside the U.S. for AI training. The official urged federal agencies to opt out of this data usage, labeling it an "urgent potential data leakage," and flagged services such as Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Polly, and Amazon Comprehend as potentially affected.
Amazon competes heavily for federal cloud contracts, having announced plans to invest up to $50 billion in government computing services. The issue also drew attention from the FBI, which reportedly conducted a brief investigation into potential exposure. Amazon later clarified to the FBI that their services were hosted on separate cloud systems and that the changes would not impact FBI data.
Experts note that such confusions are common in government tech procurement. Procurement officials may lack the technical expertise to fully understand complex service terms, potentially leading to inadvertent or intentional data usage for AI training. The SEC declined to comment, and Amazon did not respond to multiple requests for comment.