X updated its terms of agreement, permitting its artificial intelligence to learn from all users' posts. Consequently, users are expressing their discontent.
"By joining in and sharing material on our Services, you give us permission to share your content globally, on an unrestricted, no-royalty basis," the user agreement stated, this entailing the right to utilize your content, such as for instance, to educate and improve our machine learning and artificial intelligence systems, regardless of whether these are generative or something else.
In essence, by persisting in using our platform, users consent to X employing their data to enhance its AI algorithms.
The issue of utilizing user content for AI has become a significant debate as the technology advances. On X, both artists and those in artistic fields are expressing concern about their work being exploited – not just on X – to instruct machines that could eventually surpass human creators entirely. Additional X users mention their concern over personal information incorporated in their tweets being utilized as such. Some users have already started removing self-portraits from their feeds on the site.
If users are displeased with these conditions, they may find themselves facing federal court, which has a biased conservative viewpoint and is already dealing with two Musk-owned X lawsuits.
According to the update, any disagreements related to these terms will be brought before the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas or Tarrant County, Texas courts.
Tarrant County is located more than 100 miles away from X’s new headquarters, situated outside of Austin, Texas.
As per X’s terms, users who continue to utilize its services after November 15 will be deemed to have accepted the updated terms.
Changes to privacy controls
X's AI chatbot, Grok, has been the subject of controversy, ranging from spreading misinformation about the 2024 election to generating violent, explicit fake images of notable politicians. Similar criticisms have been aimed at companies, such as Google and Microsoft, for occasionally unsuitable AI tools.
Before the recent update to X's user agreement, users could opt out of sharing data by navigating to "settings," then "privacy and safety." Under the "data sharing and personalization" header, there is a "Grok" tab, where users could disable the option that permits the platform to utilize their data for AI training.
However, it remains unclear if X's new terms change this option. X now holds the right to license all content on the platform, including implementation in its machine learning and AI models.
While such broad licensing with limited restrictions is common for social media platforms, Alex Fink, CEO and founder of Otherweb, an AI-based news reading platform that targets misinformation, told CNN that what sets X apart is that its new terms "remove any ambiguity," in contrast to other platforms that do not specify their intentions so clearly.
Previously, X stated that posts from private accounts would not be used to train Grok. However, the language in the new terms of service does not make a distinction between public and private accounts.
It remains to be seen if users will still be given the option to opt out despite the new terms, as it is common for a company's legal terms to grant it more leeway than its own options allow.
CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
In response to these concerns, some tech-savvy business users on X are considering shifting their operations to platforms that prioritize user privacy and control over their content. Furthermore, tech companies outside X, like Google and Microsoft, are also under scrutiny for their AI tools' potential misuse, sparking discussions about responsible AI development and user consent in the tech industry.
