Starting November 15, Elon Musk’s X will begin collecting data from users to train Grok AI. The revised terms of service explicitly state, “By submitting, posting, or displaying content on or through the services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to make your content available to the rest of the world.” The revised terms of service also included a clause on analyzing user content “to train of [X’s] machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type.”
As AI explodes into the mainstream, X’s decision to mine user data to train its homegrown AI models poses a new dimension to security and privacy issues on social media. The announcement has left several artists who use X to showcase their work at a crossroads. Users across the globe are beginning to delete their photographs from the social media platform to prevent their data from being used to train Musk’s Grok AI.
What will Grok do with user data?
Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot has already made headlines for spreading misinformation as the November elections intensify. In 2024, Grok, alongside Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing, will continue to add fuel to the misinformation spree surrounding the US presidential elections. Grok is currently being investigated for generating deepfakes of political figures.
Grok is the most fun AI in the world! https://t.co/5ZS2iDkwim
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2024
X is yet to clarify if users can opt out of sharing data by going to “settings” and then “privacy and safety,” as previously allowed on the social media platform. In light of the recent updates to X’s terms of service, X can license all content on its platform to train its AI and ML models in the pipeline.
Previously, X stated that posts from private accounts would not be used to train Grok. However, the wording in the new terms of service does not distinguish between account types. It remains to be seen if opting out will still be an option, despite the updated terms. Alex Fink, CEO and founder of Otherweb, noted that it’s common for a company’s legal terms to provide more flexibility than what is offered through its user interface.
These strategic revisions come amid Musk’s million-dollar endorsement of Republican candidate, Donald Trump. The tech billionaire leveraged his eccentricity and wealth to garner support for the former president by offering a million dollars to Republicans who sign his unique petition.
