---
title: "Elon Musk Is Now Using Your Tweets to Train His Weird AI. Here’s How to Turn It Off."
description: "At some point, X-formerly-Twitter auto-opted its users into sharing their data with Grok, owner Elon Musk's unfunny \"anti-woke\" chatbot."
date: "2024-07-26"
modified: "2024-07-26"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grok-ai-user-data"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "ai training"
  - "grok"
  - "the digest"
  - "twitter"
---

# Elon Musk Is Now Using Your Tweets to Train His Weird AI. Here’s How to Turn It Off.

![At some point, X-formerly-Twitter auto-opted its users into sharing their data with Grok, owner Elon Musk's unfunny "anti-woke" chatbot.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/elon-musk-grok-ai-user-data.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Apu Gomes via Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

## Sharing Is Caring

At some point, X-formerly-Twitter auto-opted its users into sharing their data with [Grok](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-announces-grok-2>), owner Elon Musk's unfunny "[anti-woke](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grok-ai-woke>)" chatbot — without bothering to tell users about the change.

Flagged by [*Rolling Stone*'s Noah Shachtman](<https://x.com/noahshachtman/status/1816864896153211050>), it remains unclear when X introduced this so-called "data sharing" change that authorizes the social network to use your tweets to train Musk's [shoddy ChatGPT competitor](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-ai-accuses-nba-player-criminal-vandalism>).

https://www.twitter.com/noahshachtman/status/1816864896153211050

As Shachtman notes, opting out of having your data included in Grok's training pool is as simple as de-selecting the allowance [in your settings](<https://x.com/settings/grok_settings>).

Nevertheless, it's super sketchy that everyone was automatically opted in without being informed, and that nobody knows how long this has been going on.

## Forgiveness, Not Permission

Beyond not informing users that it's using their data, X also appears to not have told regulators about the change, either.

In a [statement to *TechCrunch*](<https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/26/privacy-watchdog-says-its-surprised-by-elon-musk-opting-user-data-into-grok-ai-training/>), a spokesperson for the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which acts as X's European watchdog, said the agency was taken by surprise when it learned that the social network had automatically opted users into allowing their tweets to be used as AI training data.

"The DPC has been engaging with X on this matter for a number of months, with our latest interaction occurring as recently as yesterday," Graham Doyle, the DPC's deputy commissioner, told the site. "Therefore we are surprised by today’s developments."

As *TechCrunch* notes, European Union law requires companies to have a valid legal reason to process data — and per the brief explanation provided under the "data sharing" tab in X user settings, such reasoning is unclear.

The watchdog said it had followed up with X about the change and that it's waiting for "further engagement" on the matter.

With this brewing debacle, X has become the latest in a [string of companies](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/youtubers-apple-anthropic-data-ai>) to [scrape data](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-demands-reporters-notes-nyt>) without asking. It's also not the first to [automatically opt users into data sharing](<https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-stop-your-data-from-being-used-to-train-ai/>) as a means of ass-covering — and unfortunately, it probably won't be the last.

**More on AI training:** [*When AI Is Trained With AI-Generated Data, It Starts Spouting Gibberish*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-trained-with-ai-generated-data-gibberish>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)