X confirms it will use public data to train AI models

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, updated its privacy policy this week stating that it will train its AI models on user posts.

“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,” an extract from the updated section 2.1 reads.

The changes were first noticed and publicly documented by Stackdiary’s Alex Ivanovs, who has covered other privacy policy updates in recent months including a similar change affecting Zoom users.

Owner and former CEO Elon Musk said that private data, such as text in direct messages, however, will not be used to train its models. The change should come as no surprise, Musk previously said that he planned to use data from the microblogging site to help researchers and engineers from his latest startup, xAI, to build new products.

X charges other enterprises $42,000 for access to its data via an API. In April, he threatened to sue Microsoft for allegedly “illegally using Twitter data” after it reportedly removed X from its advertising platforms due to the increased fees. “They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time,” Musk tweeted.