Ireland probes Elon Musk’s X over use of European user data to train AI model Grok

Ireland’s data privacy watchdog announced it was investigating how Elon Musk’s social media platform X used Europeans’ personal data to train Grok, a large language model and AI assistant that xAI developed and integrated with the X platform.

The probe targeting Musk’s platform, especially given his role as a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, will likely further strain trans-atlantic relations amid ongoing tensions between the EU and the U.S. over tech regulation and data privacy laws.

European tech laws and regulations could probably lead to a major conflict between the U.S. and the EU

The Data Protection Commission said it had opened an inquiry into “the processing of personal data comprised in publicly-accessible posts” that European users posted on X.

Additionally, the commission stated in a posted online statement, as per the data privacy law of the bloc, that this inquiry aimed to determine whether this personal data was processed legally to train the Grok Large Language Model.

Notably, the algorithms underpinning generative AI systems were trained using a large language model, a vast collection of text that included essays, blog posts, articles, and other content scraped from online sources.

Meanwhile, with the Irish watchdog’s European headquarters based in Dublin, it acts as the lead regulator for X under the European Union’s stringent data privacy law—the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—which applies across all 27 member states.

If a company commits serious violations, the watchdog can fine them up to“ 20 million euros, or 4% of their total yearly revenue.”

However, X did not reply to a request for comment that was sent via email.

Two versions of the flagship model of billionaire Elon Musk’s xAI were made available via its AP

It’s been a few months since xAI introduced Grok 3, its answer to advanced models like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT-4o. Grok 3, which now powers various features on Elon Musk’s social platform X, also can analyze images and respond to user queries.

xAI’s flagship model is available in two versions—Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini—both equipped with advanced “reasoning” capabilities and accessible via API.

Grok 3 costs $3 per million input tokens (roughly 750,000 words) and $15 per million output tokens. Grok 3 Mini is more budget-friendly, costing $0.30 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens.

Faster variants of both models come at a premium. For Grok 3, the high-speed option costs $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens. Meanwhile, the faster version of Grok 3 Mini is priced at $0.60 per million input tokens and $4 per million output tokens.

It’s worth recalling that nearly two years ago, Elon Musk introduced Grok, an AI model he described as edgy, unfiltered, and anti-“woke.” He claimed it would tackle controversial questions that other AI systems typically avoid. To some extent, he delivered on that promise—both Grok and its successor, Grok 2, were notably more willing to use explicit or provocative language, offering responses that you likely wouldn’t hear from ChatGPT.

Even though OpenAI recently countersued billionaire Elon Musk, his AI startup xAI still makes its flagship Grok 3 model accessible through an API.

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