Musk's X Plans to Leverage Public Data for AI Training

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is facing controversy this week after Bloomberg discovered the site intends to start collecting user's biometrics, work and educational data. Following this, a new privacy policy suggests that the rebranded firm, X, will use this data and other personal information to assist in training AI models. This was initially detected by Alex Ivanovs from Stackdiary.

The new privacy policy specifies the company's aim to utilize the collected information, along with publicly available data, to train its machine learning algorithms.

The document states, "We may use the information we collect, in conjunction with publicly available data, to train our artificial intelligence or machine learning models according to the policy guidelines specified here." Elon Musk, the proprietor, verified these modifications but assured that the collection of data will only include publicly available information, excluding personal messages.Currently, X lacks a press team, making it difficult to obtain further clarification on this issue.

While X does not have explicit AI goals, their owner Elon Musk does, having recently founded a company called xAI. This company aims "to understand the true nature of the universe" and will likely use the collected data from X to aid in this mission. Musk has recently expressed a desire to rival LinkedIn with his own version, suggesting why job and education details are being compiled.

A third reason for the data collection could be the sale of the information, as X's advertising earnings are limited. However, there is currently no evidence for this, other than it being commonplace in the social media industry. Previously, Twitter mainly used the data it collected for its own benefit rather than sharing it with third parties.