Your Tweets Are Worth Millions (Just Not to You)

X recently announced a major change to their terms and conditions: starting November 15, 2024, they want to use your posts to train AI models. This isn't just another privacy update - it's social media platforms transforming from ad companies into AI powerhouses. Yet the creators of this valuable content - everyday users like you and me - are still "paying" with our data for "free" services.

Putting this in perspective:

• OpenAI: $80+ billion valuation from using public data

• Reddit : $60M deal with Google for their users' content for train AI models

• Global AI training dataset market size: Projected to grow from $2.92B in 2024 to $17.04B by 2032 (US Dollars)

The Platform Pivot

Remember the saying "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product"? Well, it's evolving. Social media platforms are making a clever shift:

1. Yesterday: Your attention sold to advertisers

2. Today: Your content trains AI models

3. Tomorrow: You buy AI services trained on your own data

Think about it - platforms like X, Meta, and Google aren't just collecting your data to show you ads anymore. They're using everything - your posts, your likes, how you interact with content - to train their own AI systems. Then, in a twist worthy of Black Mirror, they'll sell these AI services back to you.

It’s Already Happening

• Alexa learning from your conversations

• iOS 18's upcoming AI features

• Waze predicting routes from user data

• Spotify's AI DJ built from your music taste

Bottom Line

Every digital trace you leave is becoming AI fuel. From smart home data to health tracking, shopping habits to travel patterns, it’s all training tomorrow’s AI. The more we bring our analog world online, the more powerful and capable these AI systems become.

Your Take? Should you get paid when companies use your content to build billion-dollar AI models, or is this just the price of "free" services?

Those are my Thoughts From the DataFront.

Max