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In a recent twist on the data privacy front, X has raised eyebrows by revising its privacy policy to include the collection of biometric data, along with users' job and education histories. However, it seems there's more to this story. X has quietly disclosed plans to leverage user data, combined with publicly available information, to enhance its machine learning and AI models.
The revelation, initially spotted by tech sleuth Alex Ivanovs of Stackdiary, has sparked discussion across tech circles, including the influential Hacker News forum on Y Combinator. Specifically, the update can be found in section 2.1 of X's policy, where it states:
"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 makes this development particularly intriguing is the connection to tech luminary Elon Musk, the owner of X, who is known for his AI ambitions with another venture, xAI. Ivanovs speculates that Musk could be positioning X as a vital data source for xAI, raising questions about Musk's recent call for journalists to cover X. Was this an effort to generate richer data to fuel AI models?
Musk's previous comments lend credence to this theory, as he previously indicated that xAI would utilize "public tweets" for AI model training. He even leveled accusations against tech giants for allegedly using Twitter data without permission, hinting at potential legal action. Musk's legal pursuits extended to unknown entities scraping Twitter data, possibly for AI language model training purposes.
Furthermore, Ivanovs points to the xAI homepage, where it's stated that although xAI operates independently from X Corp., it intends to collaborate closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to advance its mission.
Musk himself seemed to confirm the privacy policy update, emphasizing that the data use is limited to "just public data, no DMs or anything private."
