X's AI, Grok, Will No Longer Harvest European Users' Data

On Wednesday, X announced that it would stop using the personal data of its users in the European Union to train its AI chatbot, Grok.

This was confirmed by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC). Initially, the social media platform had planned for this to be temporary, but, now, they have decided to make this a permanent commitment.

In May, X released an update allowing users to opt out of letting Grok train on their public posts and personal data. However, by default, the chatbot was training on user data without explicit permission. , raising significant privacy concerns in Europe. The concerns revolved around Grok violating users' rights amongst other data laws.

According to TechCrunch, the regulatory body was surprised to find this out. In the Union, companies can only do such if there are clear legal reasons. The only legal reason provided by X was “legitimate interest” for the AI-related processing. However, privacy experts say it needs to obtain people’s consent.

After much legal pressure, X has decided to permanently end this practice within the European Union and the European Economic Area. Reports state that Grok trained with such a vast dataset for about 3 months before this decision.

There are no reports on how X's decision to avoid training its chatbot with over 60 million users in Europe would affect the development of X's AI model or if it will be affected at all. But, for non-EU members, the option of Grok training with your public posts on X (and possibly, your personal data) is turned on by default. But there are steps you can take to opt out of this.