Elon, we said no!
It feels like there's a new investigation into X every few months – and, well, that's not far off. This time, Ireland's data watchdog (the DPC) is looking into whether X used public posts from EU users to train Grok, its AI assistant, without their consent – a clear no-go under EU law.
X already settled with the DPC on a very similar matter in Irish courts just last August, with the social media platform being forced to delete months of illegally collected data.
While allegations haven't changed, the world certainly has. The new US administration sees the EU's crackdown on Big Tech less as user protection and more as unfair levies on American tech giants, and even as a threat to free speech. In the midst of the ongoing trade war, this new investigation could be framed as another attack from Brussels.
It could also put Ireland in a delicate situation. Home to the European headquarters of most major US tech firms, it tries to strike a delicate balance between enforcing EU rules and keeping the tech giants happy. But right now, it worries about the consequences of the trade war on its tech-reliant economy.
The EU is exceptionally strict regarding data privacy – something that sets it apart from the rest of the world, where social media content is often fair game to train AI models. Here, you have the right to say no. Take Meta, for example: it just announced it will start using EU users' public data (posts, comments, etc) to train its AI model. The company said it will notify users and send them a link to opt out from having their data used.
But despite the apparent transparency, a similar announcement in the UK turned out to be quite flawed: it was an easy-to-miss notification that made it seem like there was no way to opt out at all. So, keep an eye out for it!