Tweak your settings in X if you don't want Elon Musk using your data to train Grok AI

Artificial intelligence is underpinned by the data used to train it, and even in this early stage of the game this has already proved controversial. In addition to complaints about the use of copyrighted content to train AIs, concern has also been voiced about the use of personal data.

Elon Musk, unsurprisingly, wants a slice of the AI pie, and is looking to train up the Grok AI model. The social platform formerly known as Twitter, X, is being used as a source of training data, meaning that your tweets (sorry, posts) are, by default, being sucked up for this very purpose.

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Enabled by default, there are new settings on X that gives users the option to "Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning". The fact that the setting has been enabled by default is irksome to say the least, but there is more.

While it is possible to opt out of sharing your X content with Grok and, hopefully, prevent Musk from using it to power his AI model, there are at least a couple of issues. Firstly, the Grok-related setting cannot be changed in the X mobile app. Secondly, if you turn to the X website to take back control of your data and privacy the setting is hardly obvious.

While not obvious, it is accessible as has been pointed out by some X users:

In short, if you want to block Musk from using your data to train Grok, you'll need to head to the relevant section of Settings online.

• Visit x.com and click More > Setting and privacy
• Head to the Privacy and safety section and look under the Data sharing and personalization heading to the right
• Click Grok and then uncheck the box labelled "Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning"
• While you're here, you may a well click the Delete conversation history link as well

Image credit: Rafael Henrique / Dreamstime.com