I’m upset that X is apparently using all of my posts and interaction as a foundation for training its “Grok” AI system. I didn’t sign up for that when I joined Twitter back in the day. Short of quitting the site entirely, how can I opt out of it training its AI with my content?
While AI has been around for quite a while, it’s a sure bet that when Twitter was launched back in 2006, they weren’t thinking that someday everyone’s short, amusing posts would be used for training purposes. Like most social media networks, however, Twitter (now X) has always differentiated between public and private accounts; if you set up a private or closed account, your posts weren’t visible to search engines and people who you didn’t know. Without that choice, everything you post on X is in the public eye.
That public visibility has always meant more than just people who you wanted to interact with but didn’t know yet (remember when we’d find new followers through the use of hashtags?). Years ago people got upset that their posts were visible to Google and other search engines, even having social media posts surface in search results. Now it’s AI, but lots of AI systems are already analyzing every iota of data they can find online including, yes, your public X posts.
The question then is more whether X has just made it more visible by allowing people to opt out of having their public content analyzed by the X AI system (called “Grok”, a reference to an old Robert Heinlein sci-fi novel called Stranger in a Strange Land)? If your posts are already available to people (and programs!) that aren’t part of the X community, is the addition of Grok really such a big deal?
Whatever your perspective on this, I’ll step you through how to opt out of Grok using your posts for its training, but also encourage you to consider what you are posting to the public on all of your social media channels because it’s all fair game to these AI programs…
X ACCOUNT SETTINGS AND PRIVACY
While X has a sleek mobile app, you’ll need to grab your laptop or desktop for this task. Open up a Web browser and go to x.com, then log in to your account.
Impatient? You can jump straight to the Grok privacy setting with this link: x.com/settings/grok_settings
On the left side you’ll see these menu items:
Choose “More” from this list and a menu pops up:
Didja notice the “Jobs” section that’s being developed? Might be worth checking out once we’re done with this opt-out process. 🙂
For this task, however, choose “Settings and privacy” from this menu. A big list appears:
Choose “Privacy and safety” from the left side, then scroll down on the right side until you see this section of options:
There’s a lot in this area that you should check out to ensure that your overall account privacy is set to what you prefer, actually. In particular, “Inferred identity” is an important one to understand and adjust, particularly if you’re concerned about privacy.
OPT OUT OF GROK TRAINING
Click on the “Grok” entry at the bottom of the list. Notice its description: “Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning”. A click and here’s what you’ll see:
If you’re curious, xAI is the company that is building Grok, which is part of the X family of businesses but is targeting much more than just an X-based AI chatbot interface. You are finally at the spot where you can opt out of having your posts and interaction utilized for training Grok, however. Simply uncheck the blue box. Done.
CURIOUS ABOUT GROK?
Before we leave, notice on the main list of options on your X home screen that there’s now an entry labeled “Grok”. Click on it and you can check things out if you’re curious…
If you do explore Grok, notice on the very top of the right portion where it says “Fun Mode”. Click on that and you can try different styles of interaction, exactly the same as how ChatGPT and Copilot work. Then “Grok something” by typing in a prompt just as you would with any other generative AI program. Try “summarize x account @davetaylor” and you can see where it’s quite helpful with its domain knowledge of the X world.
Pro Tip: I’ve been on Twitter, then X, since the early days and have written lots and lots of useful tutorials. Please check out my X / Twitter Help Area for more useful guides. Oh, and why not follow me, @DaveTaylor, on Twitter too? Thanks!