X Restricts AI Model Training on Its Platform, Signaling Shift in Data Access Policy

X changes its terms to bar training of AI models using its content | TechCrunch

Social network X has changed its developer agreement to prevent third parties from using the platform's content to train large language models. In an update on Wednesday, the company added a line under "Reverse Engineering and other Restrictions," a subsection of restrictions on use: "You shall not and you shall not attempt to (or allow others to) [...] use the X API or X Content to fine-tune or train a foundation or frontier model," it reads. This change comes after Elon Musk's AI company xAI acquired X in March -- understandably, xAI wouldn't want to give its competitors free access to the social platform's data without a sale agreement. In 2023, X changed its privacy policy to use public data on its site to train AI models. Last October, it made further changes to allow third parties to train their models.

X's new policy prevents companies from using posts to 'fine-tune or train' AI models

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. X has updated its developer agreement to add a new restriction on using posts on the platform to train AI. The updated policy, spotted earlier by TechCrunch, says developers can't use content from X or its API to "fine-tune or train a foundation or frontier model." The policy change could set up X to make AI training deals with third-party companies, similar to the deal Reddit struck with Google. Reddit, which has a similar policy to block AI crawlers, sued Anthropic on Wednesday over claims the company's AI crawlers accessed the site more than 100,000 times since July 2024. Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, acquired X for $33 billion on paper in March. Though X's developer agreement now bars companies from training AI on its content, its privacy policy still states that third-party "collaborators" can train AI models on the site's data unless users opt out. X also feeds user data into its AI model, Grok, for training.

Elon Musk's X Blocks Others from Using Its Data for AI Training

Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, has updated its developer agreement to block third parties from using its user content to train AI models, TechCrunch reports. Developers shall not attempt to "use the X API or X Content to fine-tune or train a foundation or frontier model," reads the "Reverse Engineering and other Restrictions" section of the updated agreement. This is a sharp turn from an October update to X's privacy policy, which allowed the platform to share its user data with third-party collaborators "to train their artificial intelligence models, whether generative or otherwise" unless users opted out. Why did it change now? Musk's xAI company, which owns and develops the Grok chatbot, has acquired X. Naturally, xAI may no longer want others to tap into X's data and gain the same competitive edge it has for Grok and other AI models it may develop. Not for free, at least. This move could translate into a potential new revenue stream for X, which could license its content to third parties for a fee. Reddit, for instance, has struck similar deals with Google and OpenAI, with the former paying a hefty $60 million fee. Reddit also has implemented safeguards to block bots and web crawlers from scraping its data. Anthropic allegedly tried to scrape Reddit data without permission and is now being sued for it. Note that X's policy change is only for third-party developers. The company's terms of service still allow it to use user data to train its own AI models. You can opt out of it by going to the X.com website, selecting More (or Settings) > Privacy and safety > Grok & Third-party collaborators, and deselecting the option that says, "Allow your public data as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok and xAI to be used for training and fine-tuning."