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Google acquires Spirit Airlines data for $10 million to enhance artificial intelligence models

Google has agreed to purchase the internal data of the defunct discount airline Spirit Airlines for $10 million. The dataset includes hundreds of millions of employee emails, Microsoft Team messages, spreadsheets, and operational data, which will be anonymized before being used to train Google's artificial intelligence models. This purchase follows the airline's halt of operations in May, as it was the first significant U.S. airline in 25 years to cease operations entirely rather than being sold to another carrier. Google won the bidding war against data labeling startup Mercor, which offered $7.5 million. The data is considered highly valuable because it provides a real-world workplace intelligence that is not available on the public internet. While most airlines use AI to set fares and optimize schedules, Google's acquisition of Spirit Airlines' digital leftovers represents a new trend in the AI industry where dead companies' data is being harvested for training. A bankruptcy court judge is scheduled to rule on the sale of the data this coming Wednesday.

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