Ireland’s data regulator investigates X’s use of European user data to train Grok

Ireland’s data regulator, the Data Protection Commission (DPC), said Friday that it has opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the social media platform’s use of personal data collected from European users to train Grok.

The DPC will investigate how X processes personal data “comprised” in publicly accessible posts by European users for the purposes of training generative AI models, according to a Reuters report. The powerful Irish privacy regulator has issued fines to Microsoft, TikTok, and Meta in the past. Its fines to Meta total almost €3 billion (roughly $3.38 billion).

X quietly opted in users to sharing data with xAI, Musk’s AI company, to train its AI chatbot Grok, in 2024. Last month, Musk announced that xAI had acquired X. 

Ireland’s data regulator can impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s global revenue under the EU’s GDPR rules, which require that companies have a valid legal basis for processing people’s data. The agency’s latest inquiry comes after it sought a court order last year to restrict X from processing European user data for AI training.