Elon Musk’s X agrees not to use EU users’ personal data for AI training
Social media platform X has decided on Thursday not to train its AI systems with personal data collected from users in the European Union for the time being, as long as those users do not have the option to withdraw their consent, an Irish court ruled on Thursday.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, the main EU regulator for most major US internet companies due to the location of their EU operations in the country, this week sought an injunction suspending or restricting X from processing user data to develop, train or refine its AI systems.
Elon Musk-owned X has said it will allow all users to decide whether their public posts can be used by the platform’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Grok. To do so, users will need to uncheck a box in their privacy settings to opt out.
However, Judge Leonie Reynolds said it was clear that X began processing EU users’ data to train its AI systems on May 7 and only offered the option to opt out from July 16. The feature was also not initially rolled out to all users, she said.
A lawyer for the platform formerly known as Twitter said data collected from EU users between May 7 and August 1 will not be used until a court rules on the proceedings following the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (DPC) order.
X’s lawyers must file an objection to the suspension order by September 4 at the latest, the court heard.
In a post on the social media platform on Wednesday, the X Global Government Affairs account said the regulator’s request was “unwarranted and excessive and singles out X without any justification.”
The regulator’s concerns about how X is using the data follow Meta Platforms’ decision in June not to launch its Meta AI models in Europe for the time being, after the Irish DPC indicated it was postponing its plan.
Alphabet’s Google also agreed earlier this year to delay and implement changes to its Gemini AI chatbot after consultation with the Irish regulator.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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