EU Regulators Sue Elon Musk’s X Over Unauthorised Data Use For AI Training Of Grok: Here's All About It

Elon Musk’s X is facing legal action from EU regulators after allegedly using posts and other data from account holders to train its AI models without their consent as per a report by The Indian Express.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has decided to initiate legal proceedings against X following reports that all users on the platform were automatically opted in to allow their data to be processed for training the AI chatbot ‘Grok’.

Users have to manually go into settings and uncheck a box to opt-out of the AI training process.

The data protection watchdog, concerned by this default data processing, is seeking an injunction against X, stating that the move threatens the rights and freedoms of users on the social media platform.

Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies like X are permitted to process user data only if there is a proper and valid legal basis, such as obtaining users’ consent before repurposing their data for AI training.

Users were not informed by the platform that their posts would be used to train AI models. The data processing was discovered only after some users noticed changes in the platform’s settings.

Additionally, the option to opt-out of the data processing was only available through the web version of X.

The DPC stated it will ask the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to investigate X’s compliance with GDPR, according to RTE.

It also expressed concern over X’s plan to launch a newer model of Grok this month, noting that the social media company had refused requests to stop processing European users’ data or delay the launch.