Twitter/X Will Use Your Posts For AI Training And There's No Opting Out

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems that every day there are fewer and fewer places on the internet where artists can share their creations without worrying that their work will be coldheartedly scraped and used to train all sorts of generative AI models.

YouTube, website builders, online marketplaces, OS, and even 3D software – point your finger at any random platform that supports image or video sharing, and chances are, you're pointing at one that's perfectly okay with using the artwork they host for AI training. The latest to join this list is none other than Twitter/X, with its updated Terms of Service now hiding a rather unpleasant condition.

As per the company's updated Terms of Service, users who post, submit, or display content on Twitter now automatically grant the platform a "worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, upload, download, and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed, for any purpose."

This license includes the right for Twitter to analyze the text and other information you provide and leverage it to enhance its services, including "for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type."

Moreover, Twitter reserves the right to make your content "available to other companies, organizations or individuals, including, for example, for improving the Services and the syndication, broadcast, distribution, repost, promotion or publication of such Content on other media and services," presumably suggesting that not only can Twitter itself use your artwork to train its AI models, but it can also share it with other developers who'd be willing to help the platform "improve the Services".

As pointed out by several Twitter users, the platform's use of content for generative AI training isn't entirely new (don't forget that Grok still exists), however, before the recent Terms of Service update, users had the option to opt-out and prohibit X from scraping their posts and feeding them to machines. Even though the option to supposedly prevent Grok from using your posts is still available, the new TOS suggests that your artistic creations and text will still be used for AI training, regardless of your choice.

For comparison, here's how the same clause looked just a few days ago:

The community's reaction to the news was about what you'd expect:

The new Terms of Service will take effect on November 15, 2024. You can read them in full by clicking this link.

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