ClaimArticle

By deleting all retained data, turning off retention by default, and open-sourcing the harness, xAI now offers complete user privacy, including the option to run Grok Build fully local with your own inference.

xAI's announcement thread claims that deleted retained data, default-off retention, and an open-source, locally-runnable harness together deliver complete user privacy. ✦ AI generated

xAI · Simon Willison's Weblog · 2026-07-15 · original ↗

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With all retained data deleted, retention default off, and an open-source harness, we are offering complete user privacy. You can also run Grok Build fully open-sourced and local-first with your own inference.

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▦ xAI ✳ Grok Build

Around this claim

Evidence · 1

All user data that xAI had uploaded prior to this point will be completely and utterly deleted, as a precautionary measure.Elon Musk · Simon Willison's Weblog · conf 70%

Context · 1

Running xAI's grok CLI tool in a directory could silently upload that entire directory—including sensitive files like SSH keys and password manager databases—to xAI's Google Cloud buckets.Simon Willison · Simon Willison's Weblog · conf 60%

This moment responds to

rebuts → AI privacy is fragile and brittle, with non-obvious data-leak vectors lurking even in well-intentioned products, so a 'zero data retention' promise from a model company cannot actually guarantee data won't leak — as shown by Grok Build silently uploading full codebases despite a privacy setting meant to stop it.Chamath Palihapitiya · All-In Podcast