Elon Musk’s X has updated its privacy policy to indicate it will collect not only biometric data and information on users’ job and education history, but also use the amassed data to train its machine learning and artificial intelligence models.
The change, first noticed by Bloomberg and later detailed by tech analyst Alex Ivanovs of Stackdiary, has spurred discussions on data privacy and the ethical implications of using user information for AI research, reports TechCrunch.
The specific policy update in question appears in section 2.1 and states, “We may use the information we collect and publicly available information to help train our machine learning or artificial intelligence models for the purposes outlined in this policy.”
Ivanovs, known for highlighting noteworthy policy changes in tech companies, pointed out that the revision aligns with X owner Elon Musk’s ambitions to make inroads in the AI market via another venture, xAI. Ivanovs theorizes that Musk may intend to use X’s collected data to fuel research for xAI.
Musk has previously disclosed that xAI would leverage “public tweets” for AI training, making the policy update less surprising. In the past, Musk has accused competitors like Microsoft of illegally using Twitter data to train their AI models and even filed lawsuits against unidentified entities for data scraping, presumably for AI training.
Ivanovs also pointed to a statement on the xAI homepage, indicating that although xAI is a separate entity, it plans to “work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission.”
Just public data, not DMs or anything private
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2023
Elon Musk confirmed the privacy policy shift in a response on X, clarifying that only “public data, no DMs or anything private” would be used for the stated purposes.
