X (formerly Twitter) has silently flipped the switch on a setting that allows the platform to use your posts to train its AI chatbot, Grok. This development, first spotted by an eagle-eyed X user, has sparked a whole debate about data privacy and the ethics of AI training.
The newly activated setting gives X permission to “utilize your X posts as well as your user interactions, inputs, and results with Grok for training and fine-tuning purposes.” In other words, your personal opinions and heated debates could soon be fueling the artificial intelligence behind Grok, X’s answer to ChatGPT.
While this move might seem audacious, it’s not without precedent in the AI world. OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, and Meta have both acknowledged using public social media posts in their AI training processes. It’s a common practice in the industry, albeit one that often flies under the radar of the average user.
Elon Musk, X’s controversial owner and the mastermind behind xAI (the company developing Grok), has ambitious plans for the AI model. He claims it will become “the world’s most powerful AI by every metric by December [2024].” This data-sharing move appears to be a step towards that lofty goal, leveraging the vast amounts of user-generated content on X.
For users concerned about their data being used in this way, there’s good news: you can opt out. Here’s how:
- Visit X.com on a desktop browser (mobile app users, you’re out of luck for now).
- Navigate to More > Settings and Privacy > Privacy and Safety > Grok.
- Scroll down to Data sharing and personalization > Grok
- Uncheck the box that allows your data to be used for AI training.
Additionally, you can delete your conversation history with Grok by clicking the “Delete conversation history” button on the same page.
It’s worth noting that while X has enabled this setting by default without fanfare, other tech giants have faced pushback for similar practices. Meta, for instance, recently paused its plans to use public Facebook and Instagram content for AI training in the EU and UK after regulatory pressure.
