Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is in hot water in the EU. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) is taking the social networking giant to court for using Europeans’ data to train AI models. The latest matter relates to X’s alleged misuse of EU user data to train its Grok AI chatbot. According to RTE, Ireland’s DPC has launched legal proceedings against Twitter International Unlimited Company regarding the matter.
The Irish watchdog is worried that X is using user data without permission to train AI tools like Grok
According to RTE, the Irish watchdog is concerned over X’s use of EU user data without consent to train AI tools like Grok. The regulator is worried about how the personal data of millions of European users is being processed.
Furthermore, the DPC is concerned about X’s intention to launch the next version of Grok sometime in August. The DPC claims that X has been training the next-gen Grok model using the personal data of EU/EEA users.
Twitter International, X’s Irish division, reportedly hasn’t stopped processing users’ data. Also, the social networking giant isn’t delaying the launch of the next version of Grok as the commission had requested. That’s why the DPS has decided to take Twitter International to the high court. The DPC is seeking to suspend or completely prohibit the company from training any AI tools using the data of X users.
What does the law require?
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has a certain set of rules for companies like X when it comes to using user data. Tech brands like X are allowed to process user data only if there’s a valid legal basis for it. Thus, X is required to obtain permissions from the users before processing their data to train AI models like Grok.
What did X do?
However, X didn’t notify any of its users in the EU before using their posts to train AI tools. The matter came to light only when a select group of X users noticed a change in the settings. The company quietly started helping itself to users’ posts to train its AI models last month. Although there’s an option for users to opt out of it, the option to turn it off is buried in the web settings.