xAI acquires X: it is time to compensate content creators

I believe that with Grok, xAI reached the top of generative AI models… along with Gemini, Google’s multi-modal model. But here’s the twist.

Google performed the world’s most significant web scraping experience. This allowed Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to quickly have one of Earth’s largest and richest datasets.

Anyone familiar with AI models knows that while the code, the algorithms, and the math are essential, the models are only as good as the training data (datasets).

Google got an unfair competitive advantage for a while because they trained their multi-modal models, including Gemini, with ultra-rich datasets… made up of scraped content!

But xAI might have an edge Google won’t have, even with the crawling power of Googlebot: User-Generated Content (UGC).

Don’t get me wrong, Googlebot is actively crawling social platforms such as X and Linkedin but it isn’t the same as having direct access to the X “index”.

UGC makes Linkedin fantastic: we, the creators, constantly generate content!Nobody has to force us. We do it because we love our audience. We do it to educate, share and compare ideas!

Technically, we’ve been dealing with multi-modal models for a while now, AI models use a training corpus for each type of format: text, pictures and images, audio, video, etc… And in the end, all formats are “interconnected” to make the models more powerful.

Superficially, that seems great.

But there’s a BIG PROBLEM!

The “AI revolution” has relied on the unauthorized use of content created by artists, writers and musicians, who were neither informed nor granted permission for their work to be used!

For years, content creators have been victims: their content was unfairly exploited everywhere, from social platforms to AI engines, and they have faced issues like copyright infringement and uncredited use of their work.

Many human creators lost their livelihoods. This is unacceptable. The business model of the AI giants is anything but sustainable. And creation itself is in danger if many lose the incentive to create.

Google left web publishers worldwide with no choice: their content would be used to train Google’s AI models, or they would disappear from Google Search.

The only “option” is to block Googlebot and disappear from organic results. That’s not even an option. And that’s not acceptable!

I hope xAI will do what Google failed to do.

I hope xAI will compensate the countless content creators who cannot seem to opt out of their texts, articles, conversations (Spaces), pictures, and videos being used to train the new generation of xAI models.

My simple rule that should apply to all AI companies:

No consent, no content.

— Elie Berreby

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© Elie Berreby – March 29, 2025 – semking.com