An investigation has been launched into X’s processing of personal data of users based in the European Union (EU) for training of the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) model, Grok AI.
According to an official statement released last week by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), the probe will focus on X’s use of personal data comprising publicly accessible posts on the social media platform by users in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).
The investigation will examine X’s compliance with various provisions under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), under which the regulator can fine tech companies (whose EU headquarters are based in Dublin) four per cent of their global revenue.
The probe, being conducted under Section 110 of the Data Protection Act 2018, will determine the “lawfulness and transparency” of X’s data processing. “The purpose of this inquiry is to determine whether this personal data was lawfully processed in order to train the Grok LLMs [Large Language Models],” the data privacy watchdog says.
The development comes as X appears to have backtracked on the agreement that it would cease processing personal data of EU users for the training of AI systems. The DPC had filed a case against the company, seeking restriction of its practices for the development of AI systems. Following X’s agreement not to use EU citizens’ data, the DPC had ended its court proceedings.
Last month, Canada launched a probe into whether X’s processing of consumers’ data violated the country’s federal privacy regulations. The investigation had come hot on the heels of a complaint filed by a lawmaker. It was initiated under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
