Last week, X quietly turned on a new setting that gives it permission to train xAI’s Grok on public tweets. But it’s opt-out, meaning most people are probably unaware that their posts are being fed into Elon Musk’s latest project, which is already serving up false information.The move surprised at least one regulatory body. As the Financial Times reports, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) had been talking with X about using public tweets to train Grok just one day before the social network flipped the switch without warning.”The DPC has been engaging with X on this matter for a number of months, with our latest interaction occurring as recently as Thursday, 25 July 2024,” the DPC tells PCMag. “Therefore we are surprised by these developments. We have followed up with X and are awaiting a response. We expect further engagement early this week.”The DPC is charged with ensuring that companies comply with European privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR has strict rules on how data is collected and used; if the DPC opened a formal investigation into X over Grok, it could lead to fines or penalties, the FT says.For now, you can stop Grok from ingesting your tweets. On the desktop (not mobile), go to Settings > Privacy & Safety > Data sharing and personalization. There should be a checkbox there that you can toggle off to keep X from using your data to train Grok.
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X hasn’t commented on the controversy. Its Safety team tweeted that “all X users have the ability to control whether their public posts can be used to train Grok, the AI search assistant,” and pledged to allow people to opt out on mobile soon.Grok has been in hot water a couple of times for posting misinformation. The first time, the AI bot declared a winner in an Indian general election that had yet to take place. Then, it erroneously told people in the US that presidential ballots were finalized in eight states when it hasn’t been finalized in any states yet.
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