The unusual way Google is involved in the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy -- and what that means for you

Spirit Airlines shut down abruptly in May and fully dissolved—an unusual outcome in the U.S. airline industry. Now, the company’s remaining asset auction has attracted big tech attention: Google was disclosed as the highest bidder for Spirit’s entire dataset, paying $10 million. Google said it plans to use the data to train artificial intelligence models, which could mean interactions tied to Spirit—ticket purchases and customer service emails—feed into Google’s AI development after being stripped of identifying information. The second-highest bid came from AI data startup Mercor at $7.5 million. On Monday, bankruptcy judge Sean Lane will consider approval of the sale.