In a recent update to its privacy policy, X, the tech company founded by Elon Musk, revealed some noteworthy changes that have raised eyebrows among its users and tech enthusiasts. Bloomberg first brought attention to these updates, which include the collection of biometric data, job history, and education history from its users. However, there’s more to the story than meets the eye. An additional section in the policy update suggests that X intends to leverage the collected information and publicly available data to enhance its machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) models.
This intriguing policy alteration came to light thanks to the sharp eye of Alex Ivanovs from Stackdiary, a well-known observer of tech companies’ terms of service updates. In the past, Ivanovs has uncovered AI-related modifications in the terms of service for companies like Brave and Zoom, making his latest discovery a topic of discussion on Y Combinator’s Hacker News forum.
The revised section of the X privacy policy, located in section 2.1, reads as follows:
“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.”
What adds an intriguing layer to this development is Elon Musk’s involvement and his ambitions in the AI market through another venture called xAI. Ivanovs suggests that Musk may intend to utilize X as a valuable data source for xAI. This theory gains momentum when considering Musk’s recent tweet encouraging journalists to write about X, potentially as a means to generate more diverse and useful data for feeding into AI models.
Notably, Musk has previously stated that xAI plans to use “public tweets” to train its AI models, a practice he believes other tech giants are already employing. He even hinted at legal action against Microsoft for alleged improper use of Twitter data for training AI models. Additionally, Musk has taken legal action against unidentified entities for scraping Twitter data, which could have been related to training large language models for artificial intelligence.
Ivanovs further points out that the xAI homepage explicitly states its intention to collaborate closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies in pursuit of their mission. This alignment suggests that Musk’s privacy policy update could indeed serve as a data source for xAI’s AI development efforts.
In response to questions about the privacy policy change, Elon Musk confirmed the company’s intent, emphasizing that X plans to use “just public data, no DMs or anything private.” This clarification reassures users that their private messages and confidential information are not part of the data collection process.
In conclusion, X’s privacy policy update signifies a strategic move toward leveraging user data and publicly available information for AI and machine learning model training. This development aligns with Elon Musk’s broader vision for AI advancement through xAI, highlighting the evolving role of user-generated data in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
