Google Quietly Pays Android Developers for App Source Code to Train Gemini AI
Google has been quietly emailing select Android developers offering to pay for access to their app code and archived projects through a "confidential content offer pilot." The email avoids mentioning AI, but a link within it leads to a page about partnerships to improve Google's AI products. The move is widely seen as an effort to close the gap in AI coding tools, where Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex have pulled ahead. While developers retain their IP and the license is non-exclusive, the lack of upfront transparency about the AI training purpose has drawn criticism.