Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Friday the commencement of an investigation into Elon Musk’s company, X, concerning its utilization of personal data from European users to train the generative AI model, Grok.
The investigation by the DPC will focus on the processing of personal data contained within publicly accessible posts by European users, for the purpose of training such AI models, as reported by Reuters. The Irish privacy regulator, known for its strong enforcement actions, has previously imposed fines on companies such as Microsoft, TikTok, and Meta. The fines leveled against Meta have accumulated to nearly €3 billion (approximately $3.38 billion).
In 2024, X discreetly initiated the sharing of user data with xAI, Elon Musk’s AI venture, for the facilitation of its AI chatbot Grok’s training. Last month, Elon Musk declared that xAI had acquired X.
Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Ireland’s data regulator holds the authority to impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s global revenue if found to be processing personal data without a valid legal basis. This recent investigation follows the DPC’s attempt last year to obtain a court order intended to restrict X from processing European user data for AI training purposes.
