How to disable X from using your data to train Grok AI

If the headline’s implication caught you by surprise, believe it. X (formerly Twitter) allows its Grok AI to use your data for training purposes. This is enabled by default on your X account. Even worse, it doesn’t just apply to your interactions with Grok but also to your public posts on the social media site. If you’re not keen on feeding Elon’s LLM baby, here’s how to disable X from using your data to train Grok AI.

You shouldn’t really be shocked that your data is being used to train AI without your explicit consent. LLMs have crawled the vast majority of the internet already and have probably hoovered up everything you’ve ever written online. The only way to be sure you’re not training anyone’s AI model is to not publish your data anywhere public. But this particular example may be more a matter of principle for you if you’re not a fan of Musk’s wise-cracking AI or the way this recent settings change was quietly introduced and enabled without so much as a notification.

There are two ways to stop Grok training on your data. You can either opt out of model training or protect your posts. We’ll show you how to do both on mobile and desktop.

Disable Grok using your data by opting out of model training

When this development first came to light, you could only disable X from using your data to train Grok on the desktop site. This seemed to be another shady ploy since most people access the site on mobile. Thankfully, you can now disable it on both desktop and mobile. We’ll go over both methods.

On mobile

1. In the X app, tap on your profile picture in the top left corner.

2. On the profile menu, hit Settings & Support at the bottom.

3. From the drop-down, select Settings and privacy. It has a cog picture beside it.

4. From this settings menu, tap Privacy and safety.

5. You’ll have a long menu. Scroll down to the Data sharing and personalization section and tap Grok.

6. You’ll see the option that says, “Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning.” There is a toggle button next to it, which will be enabled by default. Tap it to disable X from using your data to train Grok.

There is also an option in red on that page that says Delete conversation history. You can press this to remove your previous interactions with Grok from its training data.

On desktop

The process is largely the same on the desktop version of the site but with the options in slightly different places on the screen.

2. From the dropdown menu, select Settings and privacy.

3. On the settings menu in the middle of the screen, click on Privacy and safety.

4. Scroll down the new submenu on the right side of the screen to the Data sharing and personalization section and select Grok.

5. As on mobile, you’ll now see the option captioned, “Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning.” There is a checkbox next to it on desktop rather than a toggle, but it works the same. Untick it to disable X from using your data to train Grok.

Disable Grok using your data by protecting your posts

The option above is the cleanest way to stop Grok from training on your data, but protecting your posts achieves the same aim. We’ll show you how you can do it here. Just be aware that this isn’t the only consequence of protecting your X posts. The setting is more generally about making your posts more private. Once you do so, your posts and other account information are only visible to people who follow you and will not appear in third-party search engines like Google. People who want to follow you will also have to request permission, which you can approve or deny.

All this might sound great to you, in which case this is a good option. Here’s how you do it.

On mobile

1. On mobile, follow the same steps as you did to find the Privacy and safety menu, as outlined above.

2. Under the Your X activity section, tap on Audience and tagging.

3. Next to Protect your posts, move the toggle button to the on position by tapping it.

On desktop

1. On the desktop site, follow the steps outlined above to get to the Settings menu.

2. Hit Privacy and safety in the center menu.

3. On the right, click on Audience, media, and tagging.

4. Check the box next to Protect your posts.

FAQs