Why Spirit Airlines’ internal data has become a hot commodity for AI companies

Spirit Airlines hasn’t flown since May, when the discount carrier announced an “orderly wind-down of operations” as part of bankruptcy proceedings. But the grounded airline might be set for a multimillion-dollar payout from a newly valuable asset: the sale of its corporate data, including internal wikis, emails, source code, and spreadsheets that can be used to train artificial intelligence. Google successfully bid $10 million for the data trove, according to court documents, though AI training provider Micro1 says it has since submitted a rival $12.5 million offer. It’s unclear whether Micro1’s offer, which came after the formal auction had concluded, will be considered. An attorney handling the data sale in the bankruptcy didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from Fast Company. Under the Google deal, any personally identifiable information would be processed for privacy by a third-party “deidentification agent,” according to court records, and the dataset doesn’t include Spirit’s customer lists. Still, a Spirit flight attendant union has formally objected to the Google sale unless more steps are taken to protect employee privacy, arguing that workers can still be identified e…