The main actors in artificial intelligencee (AI) needs user data to develop its AI language models. And Grok, Elon Musk’s AI, is no exception. At the end of July, several users discovered by chance that the tool could use posts on X (formerly Twitter), whether text, images or videos, to improve its results.
Specifically, this means that all “your interactions, your contributions and your results will likely be shared with our service provider xAI for these purposes,” the social network specifies.
GDPR non-compliance
A detail that does not please the Irish privacy authority. The organisation filed a complaint at the beginning of August, accusing X of illegally collecting personal data from European users to train Grok. Indeed, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prohibits any data collection without the explicit consent of users. Which X therefore did not respect.
Elon Musk has since agreed to stop using X-rated European posts to train his AI, according to a press release from the Irish privacy authority published on Thursday, August 8. The organization “applauds” the company’s decision to “suspend the processing of personal data to train the Grok AI tool.”
Presented as an “alternative and rebellious” AI by Elon Musk, Grok has been available since May 2024 in France. The AI obtains its information through publications on an anti-woke speech (a form of activism that aims in particular to defend minorities) and anti Chat-GPT, one of its competitors.
This is not the first time that a technology company has been forced to comply with European regulators. This is particularly the case for Meta (parent company of Instagram and Facebook).
Last July, the group was forced to postpone the launch of its new generative artificial intelligence (AI) interface for European users, citing an “uncertain” regulatory framework in the European Union regarding the use of Internet users’ data.
Source: BFM TV
