X Faces Backlash Over Secretive User Data Sharing for AI Training

Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has sparked controversy by quietly enabling a setting that allows it to use user data to train its AI model, Grok, without explicit consent.

The setting, exclusive to X Premium subscribers, permits the company to utilize users’ posts, interactions, and conversations with Grok to enhance the AI’s capabilities.

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Users can disable the setting, but only on the web, by navigating to the “Privacy and safety” section and unchecking the “Data Sharing” box.

Deactivating this setting also allows users to delete previous conversations with Grok.

X’s move has raised concerns about data privacy, prompting criticism from users.

The company has acknowledged that user data may be shared with its AI subsidiary, xAI.

This development comes as X’s AI division, xAI, begins training Grok using the world’s most powerful AI training cluster, with ambitions to make Grok the most powerful AI by December 2024.

X is not alone in facing backlash over using user data to train AI models. Meta previously faced regulatory concerns and halted plans to use public content from Facebook and Instagram for AI training.

As the debate around AI ethics and data privacy intensifies, users are urged to be vigilant about their online settings and data sharing permissions.