9 EU Complaints Filed Against X's AI Training

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Facts

  • Austrian non-profit European Centre for Digital Rights has filed nine complaints alleging Elon Musk-owned X has unlawfully collected data from over 60M EU users.[1]
  • The non-profit, branded as None of Your Business (NOYB), Monday said X, formerly Twitter, was training its artificial intelligence-enhanced search feature Grok with data collected without users' consent.[2][1]
  • Its complaints in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain fall under the General Data Protection Regulation.[3][1]
  • The Irish Data Protection Commission made similar allegations against X last week, looking to halt such data usage for AI development, training, and refinement.[4]
  • In July, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reportedly suggested X is getting users to automatically let their posts be used to build its AI.[5]
  • Grok — which is only available to X premium users — was launched last year, with Musk detailing plans to eventually also offer it as a service independent of the social media platform.[6]

Sources: [1]Euronews, [2]Reuters, [3]Yahoo News, [4]Computerworld, [5]Abc and [6]Forbes.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by MIT Technology Review. High-quality training data isn't free for the taking. This axiom ought to reshape the AI landscape by forcing companies to play by the rules and obtain proper permissions. Ultimately, this push for accountability could lead to a fairer data economy, where consent and compensation become the norm.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Wired. It's not unusual for social media companies to collect personal data but it can be avoided by reviewing privacy settings and opting out of data sharing for AI training. One can also keep track of data download tools to see what information companies have collected.

Predictions