TL;DR
- X’s AI platform, Grok, is being investigated by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) for its use of personal data.
- The investigation will examine whether X has complied with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in its processing of personal data.
- The DPC has the power to impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s global revenue under the GDPR.
Investigation by the Irish Data Protection commission
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has launched an investigation into X’s AI platform, Grok, over its use of personal data. This move comes after the DPC filed court proceedings against X last year for violating privacy rights when the platform quietly changed its data settings to automatically opt-in to training its new AI model.
According to reports, the DPC will investigate how X processes personal data “comprised in publicly-accessible posts” on its social media platform for the purposes of training generative AI models [1]. The investigation will examine compliance with key provisions of the GDPR, including lawfulness and transparency of data processing.
Grok is the group of AI models developed by X
X, formerly known as Twitter, has been developing a group of AI models under the name Grok, which are used to power things like the AI chatbot available on the X platform [2]. The DPC’s investigation threatens to stoke further tensions between the EU and the US over tech rules and regulations.
The probe follows a court case last year in which the DPC sought to prevent X from continuing to process EU users’ data for AI training without proper consent [3]. X agreed to suspend its use of EU citizens’ data to train its AI models and subsequently dropped its court action.
Earlier fines
The Irish regulator has fined several US tech giants in the past, including Microsoft’s LinkedIn, TikTok, and Meta, with Meta alone being fined nearly €3 billion to date [4].
References
[^1]: Cynthia Kroet (2025-04-14). “X’s AI platform under scrutiny for data use“. Euronews. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
[^2]: Ellen O’Regan (2025-04-11). “Ireland probes Musk’s X for feeding Europeans’ data to its AI model Grok“. Politico. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
[^3]: Reuters (2025-04-11). “Irish regulator investigates X over use of EU personal data to train Grok AI“. Reuters. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
[^4]: Rebecca Bellan (2025-04-11). “Ireland’s data regulator investigates X’s use of European user data to train Grok“. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
