Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) will start collecting biometric data from its user base in order to train AI models.
It’s recently been discovered that X has updated its privacy policies, indicating plans to collect personal information, biometrics and education data to assist in machine learning. This news comes when public perception of Musk’s social media platform continues to turn negative.
The update to X’s policy changes was first spotted by Alex Ivanovs. In a StackDiary post, the user covered the Terms and Service updates. Taking a look at the privacy policy, X states that it “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.”
As the floodgates begin to open, Musk confirms the plans to collect user data. However, the X owner states that only publicly available data is being collected. “Just public data, not DMs or anything private,” Musk claims.
Just public data, not DMs or anything private
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2023
Many may be wondering what type of machine learning X is invested in. There doesn’t appear currently to be any direct investments in AI on the social media platform. However, Musk has recently launched a new company dubbed xAI.
As the StackDiary post elaborates on, xAI does confirm it “will work closely with X” as a means of making progress “towards our mission.” Alternatively, this may be a part of Musk’s ambitions to have X compete with LinkedIn. Recently, X launched a feature in beta where verified organizations would post job openings.
Without confirmation on how public data is being used, users may understandably want to be cautious in the foreseeable future.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Source: Alex Ivanovs (StackDiary) Via: Engadget
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