Elon Musk’s xAI controls Grok, an AI chatbot built-in inside the X (or Twitter, as most of us nonetheless name it) social media platform. In 2024, Grok started to coach on public tweets by default—that means, if you happen to did not wish to present knowledge to the AI, you needed to now decide out. The transfer was unnerving; who needs to assist practice an AI that has produced racist and antisemitic rhetoric and generated sexualized pictures of underage women? Not me.
It is vital to keep in mind that all these instruments are straight influenced by the individuals who make them, so it is not nearly Grok. But it surely simply looks like I am all the time listening to about how this particular AI is saying or doing one thing offensive as a result of Musk needs to weigh in on no matter public discourse is occurring on the time. (Bear in mind when Grok had rather a lot to say about white genocide in South Africa?) If you happen to’re nonetheless utilizing X however don’t need any half in coaching Grok, this is how to verify it would not use your knowledge towards your will.
What Information Is Grok Utilizing?
In line with this assist web page, X shares your public knowledge with xAI, a Musk startup that acquired X in 2025 and was acquired by SpaceX in February. It is accountable for coaching and growing generative AI fashions, together with Grok. That public knowledge consists of public posts, engagements, reposts, conversations on Areas, profile info (akin to your bio and show identify), and any interactions you’ll have with Grok itself. That is all used to enhance Grok’s capability to grasp requests, present extra correct responses, and personalize its interactions with you.
The excellent news is that X gives a number of methods to manage when your public knowledge and interactions with Grok are used to coach the corporate’s AI methods. You possibly can decide out of mannequin coaching and Grok personalization, delete your dialog historical past with Grok, or make your account personal.
Decide Out of AI Coaching
To make sure my knowledge wasn’t getting used to coach Grok, I opened Settings and privateness > Privateness and security > Grok & Third-party Collaborators and located three issues enabled by default:
Enable your public knowledge, in addition to your interactions, inputs, and outcomes with Grok and xAI, for use for coaching and fine-tuning.
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Enable X to personalize your expertise with Grok.
Enable Grok to recollect your dialog historical past.
I unchecked all three. If you happen to beforehand used Grok and now need nothing to do with it, click on Delete dialog historical past and select Delete once more.
(Credit score: PCMag/X)
Make Your Account Non-public
The opposite solution to defend your tweets from Grok is to make your account personal, since X would not use knowledge from personal accounts for its AI coaching. Go to Settings and privateness > Privateness and security > Viewers, media and tagging, and allow Shield your posts, so solely individuals who observe you’ll be able to see your tweets. (Search for a lock icon subsequent to your username to know it is protected.) Click on the field subsequent to Shield your movies, and any movies in your posts is not going to be downloadable by default.
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(Credit score: PCMag/X)
Block Picture Enhancing
Although X has blocked Grok from creating sexualized pictures of individuals with out permission and restricted public picture enhancing by way of the Grok X account to paid subscribers, edit buttons are nonetheless on each picture posted to X, permitting you to change them privately. Not too long ago, X rolled out an replace that lets you block these personal edits, however the possibility is pretty nicely hidden and have to be carried out on a case-by-case foundation.
To dam Grok from with the ability to edit your images, it is advisable customise permissions earlier than you publish the picture to X. You possibly can’t do it after the very fact. I used to be additionally solely in a position to do that on the internet; the choice is obtainable on iOS, however not Android but. I added a picture to a publish, then clicked the picture to open enhancing choices. From there, I chosen the Flag icon, then enabled Block modifications by Grok.
(Credit score: PCMag / X)
Delete Your Account
After all, the simplest factor you are able to do to cease Grok, xAI, and X from burning down the world is to go away the platform completely. That would imply deleting your current posts or closing your account. For extra detailed directions on this, see our devoted information.
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