The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Thursday (August 8) that X has agreed to stop using personal data obtained from some users' public posts on the social media platform to train its artificial intelligence (AI) model, “Grok.”
The agreement applies to public posts made by X's European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) users and processed by the company between May 7 and August 1, the DPC said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the announcement, processing will be suspended while the DPC and other EU and EEA regulators investigate whether this use of public posts complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
According to a press release, the agreement was reached following a lawsuit filed by the DPC against Company X focusing on data use and “extensive discussions” between the DPC and Company X.
“One of our key roles as an independent regulator and rights-based organization is to ensure the best outcomes for data subjects. Today's development will help ensure the continued protection of the rights and freedoms of X users across the EU and EEA,” DPC Commissioner Des Hogan said in the release.
“We will continue to work with all data controllers to ensure that citizens' rights under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the GDPR are upheld.”
Reuters reported on Thursday that lawyers for Company X told the Irish court hearing the case brought by the DPC that the company would stop using the data until the court issues its decision.
According to the report, the judge found that Company X began processing EU users' data to train its AI systems on May 7, but only began introducing options for users to opt out on July 16.
The company's lawyers are reportedly planning to file a motion to challenge the cease and desist order by September 4.
In a post on the social media platform on Wednesday (August 7), X Global Government Affairs said it was telling users how X uses their data to train the AI and providing simple controls for users to decide whether their public posts can be used to train the AI, giving users control over their interactions with Grok.
“The orders sought by the Irish DPC are unjustified, overly broad and target X solely without any basis. This is deeply worrying,” X Global Government Affairs said in a post.
“This order applies not only to Grok but to any AI models X uses and may impact our efforts to keep our platform secure and our ability to offer X in the EU,” it added.
Read more: AI, AI training, artificial intelligence, Data Protection Commission, Des Hogan, GDPR, GenAI, General Data Protection Regulation, Generative AI, Grok, Large Scale Language Models, News, Online Privacy, PYMNTS News, Hot Topics, X
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