Is Google quietly buying code from play store developers to train AI? Here's what it's offering

Could Google be quietly paying Android developers for access to their app source code in a bid to improve its AI coding tools? Several reports circulating online suggest the company may be exploring exactly that.

According to the reports, Google has emailed select developers with an invitation to join a confidential "content offer pilot" that would allow them to generate additional revenue from their apps. While the emails do not explicitly mention AI model training, a link included in the communication reportedly directs recipients to a page describing "partnerships to improve our AI products."

Reports suggest that, beyond the data that can be scraped from the public internet, AI companies are increasingly seeking access to non-public content across a variety of media formats to train and improve their models. In this case, Google is said to be targeting source code from Android applications published on the Play Store.

More from Tech

The reports also point to Gemini's ongoing struggle to keep pace with competitors such as Microsoft's GitHub Copilot and Anthropic's Claude Code. To bridge that gap, Google may be looking to secure a steady source of high-quality, real-world coding data that could help improve its models.

Developers invited to the pilot have reportedly been asked to share codebases from Android apps available on the Play Store. Google states that the code would be used to "help improve Google's developer tools and products" — wording that reports suggest could indicate the data may be used to train or fine-tune AI models focused on coding and software development.