{"id":21226,"date":"2026-10-13T12:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=21226"},"modified":"2026-10-13T12:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:05:14","slug":"ai-labs-are-buying-data-from-dead-startups-to-train-their-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=21226","title":{"rendered":"AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten:<\/strong> This is a summary of an article from MIT Technology Review, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.<\/p>\n

MIT Technology Review • Matthew King • October 13, 2026<\/strong><\/div>\n\n

Keelan Miskell recently sold his crypto startup’s digital archives to SimpleClosure, a company helping dying businesses liquidate assets. Although the firm was young with anonymous users, Miskell earned roughly $25,000 for its code base and an additional amount likely near $15,000 for workspace data stored in Google, Notion, Figma, and Slack. SimpleClosure added these sales to its services in April, aiming to return over $10 million to startups by the end of 2026. CEO Dori Yona notes that while code or data sales were once rare, they now appear in 47% of deals.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Demand for this data has surged as AI labs hit limits with public datasets. Companies like Surge AI buy archives to create training environments where AI agents practice complex tasks such as debugging or drafting legal briefs. Nick Heiner, who leads work on these environments at Surge AI, explains that a single company’s Slack history can be worth more than another’s combined emails and calendars if it captures varied, deep conversations. However, no company has yet released tests comparing results from real-world data against synthetic alternatives, leading to wildly different valuations based on research theses rather than proven performance gains.<\/p>\n

The sale of Spirit Airlines’ decades of data, including 100 million emails and 500 million Teams messages, recently occurred for $10 million during its bankruptcy. While buyers claim they scrub personally identifiable information, attorney Greg Ewing warns that private details like doctor appointments or date-night plans may remain in the archives. Law professor Ifeoma Ajunwa argues this represents "captured capital," noting that while employers can monitor workers when employed, there is no federal law banning the sale of worker data once a firm closes.<\/p>\n

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Source:<\/strong> MIT Technology Review • Matthew King • October 13, 2026<\/p>\n

Read the original article at MIT Technology Review →<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from MIT Technology Review, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story. MIT Technology Review • Matthew King • October 13, 2026 Keelan Miskell recently sold his crypto startup’s<\/p>\n

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