X changed its terms of service to let its AI train on everyone’s posts. Now users are up in arms

By CNN Newsource

Published October 21, 2024 3:30 AM

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — When X unveiled its newest terms of service, which go into effect on November 15, users quickly picked up on one change.

“By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to make your Content available to the rest of the world,” the terms of service said, which includes the right to analyze any of that content “including, for example, for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type.”

Basically, by continuing to use the platform, users will agree that X can use their data to train its AI models.

Using content to train AI has become a major issue as the technology booms. On X, artists and others in creative roles are fretting about their work being used – not just on X – to train computers that could someday replace human creators entirely. Other X users say they are concerned about personal information in their tweets being used that way. Some users said on the site they have already begun deleting photographs of themselves from their feeds.

And if users have any issue with those terms, they may end up in a federal courtroom that is favored by conservative activists and is already presiding over two lawsuits involving Musk-owned X.

According to the update, all disputes related to the terms will be brought to the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts in Tarrant County, Texas.

Tarrant County is more than 100 miles away from X’s new headquarters outside of Austin, Texas.

X’s terms said any users who continue to use their products or services on or after November 15 would be agreeing to the updated terms.

Changes to data privacy

Grok, X’s AI chatbot, has already been embroiled in controversy, from spreading false information about the 2024 election to generating violent, graphic fake images of famous politicians. Companies from Google to Microsoft have similarly come under fire for sometimes weird, completely off-base AI tools.

Before the most recent terms of service update, X users could opt out of sharing data by going to “settings,” then “privacy and safety.” Under the “data sharing and personalization” header, there is a tab for “Grok,” where users can uncheck the box that allows the platform to use their data for AI training.

But it’s not clear whether X’s new terms of service take away that option. X can now license all the content on the platform, including using it in its machine learning and artificial intelligence models.

While such broad licensing with few limitations is not uncommon for a social media platform, Alex Fink, CEO and founder of Otherweb, an AI-based news reading platform that targets misinformation, told CNN that what makes X unique is that its new terms “remove any ambiguity” in contrast to other platforms that don’t spell out their intentions.

Before, X said posts from private accounts would not be used to train Grok. But the language in the new terms of service does not differentiate between the types of accounts.

But only time will tell if you may still be able to opt out, despite the new terms. Fink said it’s fairly common for a company’s legal terms to give it more leeway than its own menu options allow.

CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.