EU watchdog sues Elon Musk’s X over alleged AI data violations

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the independent agency charged with upholding the European Union’s data protection laws, has filed official high court proceedings against “Twitter International Unlimited Company” over alleged data violations.

According to Irish news site RTE, the suit is related to the “X” social media platform and xAI’s “Grok” artificial intelligence model. The report claims that DPC officials were compelled to take action after X, formerly Twitter, refused requests to cease collecting data from users in the EU.

The DPC, as recently as July 25, appeared optimistic that X leadership would respond to requests for information having stated at the time that it expected a response in the next week. Evidently that deadline came and went without the satisfaction the DPC had sought.

Elon Musk and xAI

Both X and xAI are owned by billionaire mogul Elon Musk. He’s long touted the synergy between the two companies. The primary entry point to xAI’s flagship AI model, Grok, for example, requires a paid subscription to the X social media platform. Data generated by users on X is used to train xAI’s Grok and, traditionally, other internal X products.

Users on the X platform can opt out of having their data used to train either company’s products. However, according to the DPC, the companies were using the data before the opt-out option was introduced and haven’t done enough to rectify the situation.

Court records indicate that an action has been filed, but it’s unclear exactly what the next steps are. RTE reports that the judge presiding over the case has granted permission to service short notice on injunction proceedings — it’s unclear at this time whether this could have an effect on X or xAI users in the EU.

Elon Musk sues Sam Altman

In the meantime, Musk’s legal team’s outbox appears to be getting as many headlines as its inbox. The billionaire has decided once again to sue Sam Altman, who co-founded and serves as CEO of rival AI firm OpenAI.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Musk had previously sued Altman and OpenAI over his contention that the company was using its pseudo-non-profit status to disguise its for-profit intentions. He subsequently dropped that lawsuit in June.

The new lawsuit appears to be based on the idea that Altman preyed on Musk’s humanitarian nature and duped him into investing in a “spurious” nonprofit company.