IX is the latest social media site that allows third parties to use your data to train AI models
Elon Musk’s IX was already using your data to train its artificial intelligence. Soon, it will allow other companies to do the same.
As of Nov. 15, the social network formerly known as Twitter will share user data – including posts, likes, bookmarks and reposts – with third-party platforms that may use the information to train AI models.
The company updated its privacy policy on Wednesday to clarify the changes. When the policy takes effect, users are automatically opted out until they opt out.
“Depending on your settings, or if you decide to share your data, we may share or disclose your information with third parties,” reads the revised policy.
“If you do not opt out, in some cases the recipients of the information may use it for their own independent purposes beyond those specified in X’s Privacy Policy, including, for example, training their artificial intelligence models, whether productive or otherwise. .”
This is the latest arms race. Everyone is working towards the superiority of AI.– Ritesh Kotak, cybersecurity expert
As user data becomes an increasingly valuable resource, social networks are sitting on a gold mine—and selling that information to artificial intelligence companies is a lucrative business.
“This is the latest arms race. Everyone is working towards the supremacy of AI,” said Ritesh Kotak, a cybersecurity and technology analyst based in Toronto.
“The more data sets you have, the more people involved in that data being collected from, the more accurate your model will be.”
Why sites like Reddit sell data to AI companies
The change comes months after X quietly changed its privacy policy, giving itself permission to train the company’s Grok chatbot with user data.
But that led to an investigation by the European Union’s privacy watchdog, which concluded that X agreed to stop collecting user data in that region for the purpose of training Grok.
LinkedIn also allowed itself to train its artificial intelligence models with user data, and Meta used Instagram and Facebook social posts to train its AI virtual assistant.
Like X, other social networks have reportedly signed content licensing deals with AI giants, bringing in a new stream of revenue amid fierce competition for advertising dollars, notes Ajay Shrestha, a professor of computer science at Vancouver Island University.
“The traditional procedures they used [to] generating revenue, through advertising or subscription methods, does not work well,” said Shrestha.
Deals include:
- Reddit is reported to have closed such a deal with Google this year, with Reuters reporting that the deal is worth $60 million US per year.
- Stack Overflow, an online community for developers, started charging AI companies to scrape their data to train their bots last year.
- Tumblr and WordPress have reportedly struck a deal with AI production companies Midjourney and OpenAI to sell user data to train their AI tools.
Other news publishers and stock photography companies have made similar deals – Shutterstock’s licensing business generated more than US$100 million last year, for example. Many others have sued the AI giants for disposing of their content without permission, or warned them against doing so.
Shane Obata, portfolio manager with Middlefield Group in Toronto, explains what the IPO will do for Reddit and why the company could be a gold mine for artificial intelligence companies.
And what’s in it for the big tech companies? Social media posts are an important form of data because they can convey emotions, showing how people really talk and think, according to Kotak.
“Posts on social media may produce very little quality content from a technical or real world perspective, but [they are] rich in sensitive analysis,” he said.
Can you go out?
As of Friday, X did not appear to update his settings with the option to opt out of the change before the Nov. 1 start date. 15. CBC News reached out to the company.
“As a user, you may not want your posts or personal information to be used to train algorithms that the rest of the world will be able to use,” Kotak said.
“These platforms literally make it automatic that your data will be used to train these algorithms, meaning you have no choice in the matter. Unless you step in and prevent that from happening.”
In general, users can withdraw from such changes by going to the settings, privacy and security, and under the data sharing and personalization topic, change the “data sharing with business partners” option.
But opting out isn’t always cut and dry, Kotak said, noting that an AI model can’t necessarily extract the data provided if the user opts out after training has begun.
“There’s no way to reverse that and have whatever data you’ve already extracted be extracted from the learning model as well,” he said.
“If you’re not paying for a product, it’s a product. And in this case, data is a product.”
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