Tag: Elon Musk

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Mobile Syrup

Amazon Prime Video uses Homelander meme to take a jab at Twitter’s blue check removal

Amazon Prime Video is having a bit of fun with the recent news of Twitter’s gradual removal of blue checkmarks for all legacy users, posting a rather humourous meme from the hit show The Boys.

The meme depicts the character Homelander (who is labelled as Twitter) pushing his son (depicted as Twitter’s blue check mark) off a roof. Prime Video posted the photo to its Twitter account, captioned, “Well… he can do what he wants 🤷 #TheBoys.”

Take a look for yourself.

Amazon Prime Video was not the only notable account to comment on CEO Elon Musk’s push to persuade users to join Twitter Blue. Stephen King’s blue check remained intact, with the author claiming he had not paid for verification.

However, Musk answered by stating that he has been paying for some notable figures blue checkmarks, such as William Shatner and LeBron James.

Even with jokes from companies like Amazon, some users have not taken kindly to Musk’s recent moves, with actor Ben Stiller saying it was “quite possibly” time to get off Twitter.

In other Twitter news, the site has removed the ‘Government-funded’ labels from news organizations’ accounts.

Image credit: Amazon Studios

Source: @PrimeVideoUK Via: Deadline

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter reportedly now requires verification from all advertisers

If you’re a person or a business looking to advertise on Twitter, it looks like you’ll have to start coughing up cash.

Several users of the Elon Musk-owned social media platform are sharing screenshots of this policy update. In it, the statement reads, “starting April 21, your @account must have a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations to continue running ads on Twitter.”

For context, Twitter Blue costs $10/month, while a verified organization status costs $1,000/month.

The statement further elaborates, “this change aligns with Twitter’s broader verification strategy: to elevate the quality of content on Twitter and enhance your experience as a user and advertiser. This approach also supports our ongoing efforts to reduce fraudulent accounts and bots.”

This development comes after the official phasing out of the platforms’ legacy blue checkmark system, a Twitter staple that hasn’t lasted the Musk acquisition.

The official Twitter page for ad account creation has not provided any updates, nor has Musk himself Tweeted about the change as of yet.

Source: @MattNavarra Via: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter starts removing legacy verified checkmarks

Elon Musk and Twitter have been adamant about removing legacy verified checkmarks from users’ profiles. The social media platform’s CEO first intended to initiate the removal of legacy checkmarks on April 1st, but that never happened.

This time around, however, Twitter’s official account shared that starting 4/20, only those who sign up for Twitter Blue would retain their Blue checkmark, and the social media company wasn’t kidding.

We can confirm that legacy verified checkmarks have been removed from user profiles. For reference, MobileSyrup‘s legacy checkmark has been pulled.

The company’s former leadership had assigned verified blue check marks to accounts as a means of distinguishing accounts of noteworthy individuals and public organizations. Now, however, anyone can get a Blue checkmark on their Twitter profile by paying $10/month or $105/year.

During the checkmark removal process today, certain users, including MobileSyrup staff, experienced perplexing glitches where their blue check marks vanished, reappeared, and disappeared again.

This comes soon after Twitter Blue expanded worldwide.

Image credit: Shutterstock

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Mobile Syrup

Tesla announces Cybertruck delivery event for later this year

Big news coming out of Austin, as Tesla is reportedly planning to hold a delivery event for the futuristic Cybertruck in the third quarter of this year.

According to The Verge, CEO Elon Musk spilled the beans about the event to Tesla investors on the company’s most recent earnings call. The electric car company will begin manufacturing the Cybertruck this summer with plans for volume production having been previously slated for sometime in 2024.

During the earnings call, Musk allegedly told investors that it “takes time to get the manufacturing line going, and this is really a very radical product.” He added that the Cybertruck is not made the way other cars are made.

If you remember anything about the battery-electric light-duty truck that was revealed back in November of 2019, you’d understand the CEO’s point. The Cybertruck is unlike anything on the market right now, especially in terms of looks, with the vehicle sporting a stainless steel exterior that Tesla coined as an “exoskeleton.”

News of a delivery event is promising, considering that the Cybertruck has been delayed on multiple occasions up to this point. The launch was initially planned for 2021 before being moved back to last year, and then once again moved to this year.

Although there have been reports of pricing for the truck, with a three-motor model teased at $70,000 USD ($94,309 CAD). Tesla has warned that final pricing and specs have not yet been determined.

Interested in how a windshield wiper might work on the Cybertruck? Check it out here.

Image credit: Tesla

Source: The Verge Via: Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

CBC wants Twitter to change its label to ‘Publicly-funded media’

The Global Task Force is urging Twitter to change the “Government-funded Media” labels designated to several accounts.

The CBC is part of the group and received the label last week before CEO Elon Musk changed its label to “69 percent Government-funded Media.”

The group says the “misleading label” was also assigned to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

The CBC points to Twitter’s policy, that states government-funded media might see government officials involved in the editorial content in some way. That’s ” clearly not the case with ABC, CBC/Radio-Canada, KBS or RNZ,” a CBC press release says.

If any label is to be applied to these accounts, it should be “Publicly-funded media,” the broadcaster says.

After all, it’s a change Twitter has already implemented for several BBC Twitter accounts. Originally labelled “Government-funded Media,” Twitter changed it after opposition from the broadcaster.

“Twitter’s approach to labelling on the basis of funding misunderstands the fundamental concept of public service media: they are publicly funded organizations that are statutorily independent of government influence. This model has served audiences well in democratic countries for much of the last century.”

Members from several media outlets around the world, including the BBC, KBS, and CBC, make up the task force.

Image credit: CBC/Twitter

Source: CBC

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk hints at starting his own AI company dubbed ‘TruthGPT’

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In an effort to challenge OpenAI and Google AI, Elon Musk has stated that he’s looking to create his own artificial intelligence company as a third option for users.

During an interview with Fox News, the current Twitter CEO insinuated that he would want to name the company “TruthGPT,” a bit of a jab toward OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT. The name would go hand-in-hand with Musk’s goal for the site, stating that he wishes to create a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.”

He added that the potential chatbot would hopefully do more harm than good, which isn’t frightening at all.

The multi-billionaire also accepted the fact that his future project would be at a disadvantage due to “starting late,” but that’s only if he actually goes through with his plans.

Although it’s easy to write these claims off as nothing more than one of Musk’s hypothetical ventures, he recently signed paperwork for the business X.AI Corp. This, along with hiring researchers from DeepMind for an upcoming Twitter AI project and purchasing around 10,000 GPU’s, could indicate the start of the CEO’s journey into the AI space.

Musk stated that the reason behind the potential venture stems from his concern for humanity at the hands of AI. An interesting reason considering his earlier support of OpenAI, helping the project get off the ground in 2015 before removing himself from the project following a disagreement with CEO Sam Altman.

Despite it still being unclear exactly how his AI plans will carry over to Twitter, Musk suggested a feature that would allow users to encrypt their messages would be coming soon.

Even with the CEO’s plans being relatively vague so far, don’t be surprised if we see Musk take a swing at starting up his own AI company or, at the very least, implementing a similar model on Twitter.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Fox News Via: Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk reveals that owning Twitter has been ‘quite painful’

In a recent live interview with the BBC, Elon Musk said that running Twitter has been both “quite painful” and “a rollercoaster.”

What’s Musk going to do about it? Well, with the tech billionaire’s eccentric personality, no one can know for sure. However, he goes on to say that if the right person came along, he’d be open to selling the company.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion USD (roughly $59 billion CAD) back in October of last year. Since then, he’s been no stranger to offering ‘creative’ approaches to running the company, including covering up the ‘w’ on the Twitter headquarters building to have it read ‘Titter’ instead.

The interview with BBC covered a variety of topics, including the company’s mass lay-offs, the CEO’s work habits and the spread of misinformation on the platform.

Musk said the “pain level has been extremely high, this hasn’t been some kind of party,” when asked if he had any regrets about acquiring the company.

Despite being open to selling just months after initially completing the takeover, Musk stands by his decision, saying that buying the company was the right thing to do.

Mr. Musk goes on to say that although it was the right decision, it’s come with its fair share of challenges. “I sometimes sleep in the office”, he said, admitting he crashes on a couch in a library “that nobody goes to.”

Apart from the workload, Musk also touched on his controversial tweets, saying that he’s shot himself in the foot multiple times and that he thinks he should stop tweeting after 3am.

The multi-billionaire found himself in more hot water recently when a label was added to the BBC’s main Twitter account describing it as ‘government-funded media,’ something that Musk says the corporation is “generally not thrilled with.”

In the same vein, Canadian MP Pierre Poilievre has officially called for Twitter to label CBC as government-funded media, to “protect Canadians against disinformation and manipulation by state media.” In the tweet, Poilievre attached a signed letter to Twitter asking for the change.

In an effort to be accurate, Musk has said Twitter is changing the label to state ‘publically funded.’

Musk goes on to address several other concerns during the over the hour-long interview, but the key takeaway is that he seems to have realized that he’s bitten off more than he can chew with his role as Twitter CEO.

Source: BBC

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Mobile Syrup

Musk is working on his own generative AI project for Twitter

After co-signing an open letter addressed to AI labs globally to pause the development of large-scale AI systems, Elon Musk seems to be working on an AI project within Twitter.

According to sources familiar with the matter (via Business Insider) Twitter has recently purchased roughly 10,000 GPUs (graphics processing units), which are likely to be used on a large AI model for the platform.

Musk is committed to the project, which is evident by the purchase of 10,000 GPUs, however, according to sources familiar with the matter, the project is at an early stage. It’s currently unclear what Musk’s AI project would focus on. Likely use cases could be to better target users with ads or to improve the search functionality on the platform.

Further, according to Business Insider, Musk hired Igor Babuschkin and Manuel Kroiss from Alphabet-owned AI research firm DeepMind in March to help him on his AI endeavour that would rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

It’s worth noting that Musk co-founded OpenAI alongside Sam Altman and others, though he walked away from the company in 2018.

Could it be that Musk’s open letter to pause development of large-scale AI models was so that he could secretly play catch up? It wouldn’t be surprising if that was the case.

Source: Business Insider

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk continues ‘Titter’ gag by painting over ‘W’ on headquarters sign

On April 6th, the Twitter headquarters sign was partially covered by a white tarp, courtesy of CEO Elon Musk, who has now confirmed that the move was his responsibility.

Why would the tech billionaire cover up his own company’s branding on purpose, you might ask? Well, let’s just say that there was a reason the sign was only partially covered. That’s right, the Twitter sign in San Francisco now reads “Titter” instead.

Although some Musk fans can still be found chuckling helplessly online over the CEO’s playground humour, Twitter’s landlord did not take kindly to the gag. Musk stated that the company was informed that they are legally required to keep the name “Twitter” on the sign.

Musk’s solution was probably exactly what you would have expected, given his already-established childlike banter.

“Our landlord at SF HQ says we’re legally required to keep sign as Twitter & cannot remove “w”, so we painted it background color. Problem solved!” Musk said in a tweet.

Naturally, the CEO followed up with a punchline that would have even the sternest eight-year-old snickering with glee.

“They tried to muffle our titter 🤭” the social media head tweeted.

This move follows other jokes from Musk involving similar subject matter. Back in October 2021, he tweeted that he planned on starting a new university called the “Texas Institute of Technology & Science,” or “TITS” for short.

Very clever, Elon.

Musk also polled his 134 million followers on the platform last year on whether or not to change the company’s name to “Titter.”

Regardless of whether these “changes” are here to stay or just another one of Musk’s temporary wisecracks is yet to be seen. As for now though, don’t be alarmed if images of a massive “Titter” sign begin to circulate on your social media.

Source: @ElonMusk Via: Gizmodo

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Mobile Syrup

Substack founders respond to Twitter’s restrictions on tweets with links to competing platform

Late this week, Twitter users began noticing a sudden restriction in promoting Substack and linking to the service. It appears as though Twitter unauthorizes users to like, reply, and retweet tweets featuring links of the competing platform. Substack founders Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi have issued a statement.

In response to Twitter’s sudden restrictions, the founders state, “We’re disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict writers’ ability to share their work.” 

Shared with The Verge, the statement continues to read, “Writers deserve the freedom to share links to Substack or anywhere else. This abrupt change is a reminder of why writers deserve a model that puts them in charge, that rewards great work with money, and that protects the free press and free speech. Their livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don’t own their relationship with their audience, and where the rules can change on a whim.”

This ordeal began when Substack announced “Notes” a Twitter-like feature to be used on the platform. Notes enables users to write and publish small posts and include “quotes, comments, images, and links.” Truth be told, the new Substack feature looks very reminiscent of Twitter’s UI. There are similar icons representing likes, replies, and reshares (Substack’s equivalent of a retweet). Plus, the main page offers users a ‘Home’ and ‘Subscribed’ feeds to switch between.

Twitter—and to a likely further extent CEO Elon Musk—did not take kindly to this, apparently. It wasn’t long until Substack embeds and further authorization was restricted.

This isn’t the first time Twitter has attempted to crackdown on competing services. In December, the social media platform attempted to ban links to Mastodon, Instagram, Linktree, etc. Third-party developers are also attempting to keep up with the changes to Twitter’s new API tiers. Launched last month, Twitter is now charging developers big and small to use its API.

Substack has been growing in popularity, especially as an alternative to Twitter. For many journalists, the tools Substack provides may be more tantalizing than the current landscape of Twitter. Musk has often claimed to be a proprietor of free speech yet subsequent actions and policies beg to differ. 

Image credit: Substack

Source: The Verge