Google paying developers for app code to train AI

Google Quietly Pays Play Store Developers for Code to Train AI Models

Google has begun offering to purchase access to source code from Android Play Store developers as part of a confidential pilot program aimed at improving its AI-powered coding tools, according to a report by 404 Media published on June 2.404media

The company has emailed select developers, inviting them to “join a confidential content offer pilot” that would allow them to “generate additional revenue from your apps,” according to an email obtained by 404 Media from a developer whose app has millions of downloads. The developer was granted anonymity because they feared retaliation for sharing details of what Google described as a confidential program.404media

What Google Is Asking For

The email, sent by Google’s Partnerships team, asks developers to share “high-quality, real-world codebases,” including active production code and archived prototypes or side projects. Google states the code would be used “to help improve Google’s developer tools and products,” though the email itself does not mention artificial intelligence. A link within the email directs to a Google page about “partnerships to improve our AI products,” which explains the company is seeking to “pay for the delivery of non-public content in a range of media formats”.9to5google

Developers who participate would retain full intellectual property rights under a non-exclusive license, meaning they keep ownership of their code and can monetize it elsewhere.404media

Why Google Needs Private Code

The move comes as Google has fallen behind competitors in the AI coding space. Anthropic’s Claude Code has driven the company to a valuation exceeding that of OpenAI, while Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot has gained wide adoption. The initiative suggests that publicly available code scraped from the internet has not been sufficient to build competitive coding AI, highlighting the broader challenge of companies running out of content to train on.404media

Google’s partnerships page frames the effort as mission-driven, citing AI’s potential to “help the world combat and manage natural disasters” and “help doctors detect diseases earlier”.404media

A Familiar Playbook

The approach echoes Google’s previous content deals for AI training. The company paid Reddit $60 million for access to its platform’s data, a deal whose results have been mixed. Unlike most web-scraped content used for AI training, Android app source code is generally private and not published online, making direct payment a more defensible route to access it.9to5google