Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 2
Elon Musk admits to the rumor about why he actually bought Twitter
Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an exclusive interview with the BBC, where he revealed some details about his acquisition of Twitter.
The Twitter CEO sat down for an interview last week where he made some honest confessions about some of his recent business ventures, as well as putting some long-standing rumors to rest. Musk revealed during the interview that the acquisition of Twitter and now being at the helm of the company has been "quite painful" and an overall "rollercoaster" of an experience. The tech billionaire conceded that he doesn't "have a stone-cold heart" and that he's been "under constant attack".
Musk added that this "constant criticism" is arriving to him in various forms, either through the media and/or regurgitated on Twitter. Musk described his situation and this constant criticism as "rough". Despite these challenges, Musk said that he still keeps his Twitter replies open to read the public's comments and has completely removed his entire block list. If Musk is telling the truth here, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, the Twitter CEO has left himself completely exposed to all forms of criticism, which speaks to his overall push for more freedom of speech on his platform.
Continue reading: Elon Musk admits to the rumor about why he actually bought Twitter (full post)
Elon Musk's Twitter leaks users' secret nude photos to the public
Twitter is once again experiencing what appears to be a major problem as users are reporting their secret nude photographs are appearing in the public For You tab.
New Yor Times best-selling author Abraham Josephine Riesman took to Twitter to sound the alarm on nude photos appearing in Twitter's For You tab by writing that Twitter Circles "is broken" as Riesman noticed an account that they don't follow like one of their nudes they posted in a Twitter Circles. As you can probably imagine, Riesman wasn't alone in experiencing this glitch, as more users began reporting the same problem happening to them over the weekend.
Daric L. Cottingham took to her personal Twitter account to write that Twitter Circles is "no longer private" and that she hopes the glitch isn't retroactive. Cottingham continued and said that some of the leaked nudes are appearing in users' For You tab through a mutual follower of an account that likes a Twitter Circles photograph. Accounts that are posting these Twitter Circle nudes only know what tweets are slipping through by which ones that are liked by accounts they aren't following.
Continue reading: Elon Musk's Twitter leaks users' secret nude photos to the public (full post)
Elon Musk comments on his name being hardcoded into Twitter's algorithm
A part of Twitter's source code was uploaded to GitHub on Friday last week, and immediately the public began diving through the files.
The revealed code suggested that Twitter's algorithm would identify tweets by Elon Musk and label tweets by other users as "Democrat", "Republican," or "power user". The portion of the code that revealed these details has since been removed from GitHub, but a screenshot of it can be found above. Twitter CEO Elon Musk appeared in a Twitter Spaces call to address these concerns of his name being hardcoded into Twitter's algorithm, saying that he found it "weird" and that "This is the first time I'm learning of this by the way."
During the Twitter Spaces call, Twitter engineer Brian Wichers explained that these categories or labels were implemented into the algorithm about 10 years ago, and they are not a valuable variable throughout the entire code base. The point of the labeling not being an important factor throughout the entire code base was backed up by another Twitter engineer on the call, who said that these categories were only used for tracking purposes to identify if the platform was swaying too far towards one side.
Google cost cutting to limit laptops, PCs, and access to staplers for employees
Earlier this year, we reported that cost-cutting measures at Google went beyond things like cutting thousands of jobs, with employees set to share desks in the company's Cloud division. "Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler," wrote the internal memo that leaked.
Google's Silicon Valley HQ, now with fewer staplers, image credit: Iwan Baan.
And now CNBC's Jennifer Elias is back with another leaked memo, a companywide note from Google CFO Ruth Porat, outlining more cost-cutting measures.
It's all about cutting costs, ranging from removing staplers and tape from all Google print stations (apparently, you need to go to the reception desk and ask to borrow a stapler if you need one) to fewer offerings when it comes to laptop replacements.
New Google Flights feature pays ticket buyers if prices change
Google testing whether it's come up with a solution to not knowing when is the best time to buy plane tickets, as the price can sometimes fluctuate drastically.
Most people have been in the situation where they aren't sure whether now is a good time to pay for the tickets for an upcoming trip or if it would be better to wait a few more days to potentially save some money. Google believes its come up with a solution that is an extension of its already implemented price tracking feature on Google Flights. Introducing Google's 'Price Guarantee', a new feature that has just gone into a new pilot program across the US.
Google's new feature adds a new Price Guarantee badge that will appear next to an available flight. The badge represents Google's guarantee that the price you are looking at when you see the badge won't go lower than the current figure. Google believes this new feature will enable users to confidently purchase tickets without worrying that within the days leading up to their departure, their flights will suddenly become cheaper.
Continue reading: New Google Flights feature pays ticket buyers if prices change (full post)
Twitter's source code leaks online ahead of Elon Musk making it open-source
Following the promises made by Twitter CEO Elon Musk about making Twitter's source code transparent, the platform's internal source code has leaked online.
Elon Musk took to his personal Twitter account on March 18, writing that Twitter will be making its internal code that's used to recommend tweets open source on March 31, but, according to a recent report from The New York Times (NYT), parts of Twitter's code have already been uploaded to GitHub, an online collaboration platform for software developers. The NYT cites a legal filing made by Twitter that requests that GitHub remove the files uploaded to its server.
GitHub complied and pulled them down on the same day as the filing, but this occurred after the files were available for download for several hours. At the moment, it remains unknown just how long the code could be accessed by the public, but the NYT writes it could have been public for "at least several months". Notably, Twitter requested the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to issue an order to GitHub to identify the individual that uploaded the file, or any other people that downloaded it.
Elon Musk reportedly left OpenAI after he failed at taking over the company
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk reportedly attempted to takeover OpenAI in 2018 but ended up cutting ties with the company after his plan was rejected.
The news comes from Semafor, which recently published an article that claims Musk, a founder and board member at the time, said to Sam Altman, current OpenAI CEO, and other fellow board members that OpenAI was losing to Google. Musk then followed up by offering to lead OpenAI himself, which was rejected by Altman and the other board members. According to the article Musk then stepped down from the board and pulled out his planned donation to the company.
At the time of Musk's departure, the Tesla CEO cited a conflict of interest between Tesla and OpenAI as the reason for his leaving. Musk said that Tesla was creating its own artificial intelligence system and would be competing for talent with OpenAI. However, according to the eight people familiar with the inside story that spoke to Semafor, a power struggle and rivalry started between Musk and Altman following Musk's rejection, which resulted in Musk stepping down from the board of directors and immediately stopping payments of his promised $1 billion donation that would have been rolled out over many years.
Someone could pay $95,000 for Steve Jobs' signature
Not many people would pay a lot of money for someone else's signature. But that's probably exactly what is going to happen when this Steve Jobs autograph goes up for sale.
Jobs was famously one of the two Apple co-founders who brought us the company responsible for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and much more. But Jobs was also famously awkward when it came to getting his autograph. In fact, it just didn't happen. Except when it did. And this is one of those times.
The signature is part of a plaque that was given to an Apple employee back in 2000. In fact, that employee was former Apple marketing exec Suzanne Lindbergh and the plaque comes with a letter and a handwritten signature.
Continue reading: Someone could pay $95,000 for Steve Jobs' signature (full post)
Elon Musk apologizes then deletes tweet roasting disabled Twitter employee
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has entered into a heated exchange with a Twitter employee over his role at the company and the amount of value he has/was providing.
The storm of tweets began yesterday when Twitter user "Halli" asked about their employment status at Twitter after not hearing a response from the company for over 9 days. Halli publicly tagged Elon Musk in a series of tweets that explained that access to his computer was cut off, along with approximately 200 other Twitter employees, and that Twitter's HR department wasn't able to confirm if they were an employee or not. After thousands of retweets on that post, Musk replied by asking what "work" Halli had been doing at Twitter.
The thread continued, and Musk approved of Halli's request to break confidentiality on explaining what they were doing at the company, which resulted in Musk firing back with rebuttal questions asking specifically about the work and the value it provided Twitter. Additionally, Musk wrote that Halli "did no actual work", and claimed that "his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm." Musk then added, "Can't say I have a lot of respect for that," while posting a link to the video found below.
Elon Musk pays out BBC for report saying Twitter can't protect users from trolls
Elon Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to shine a light on a recent article penned in the BBC about Twitter purportedly failing to protect its users from "trolls".
The article titled "Twitter can't protect you from trolls anymore, insiders say" was written by Marianna Spring and claims that Twitter is no longer able to protect its users from "trolling, state-coordinated disinformation, and child sexual exploitation". The article cites Twitter insiders that spoke to the BBC as well as "exclusive academic data" as the source of the new information.
These Twitter insiders also told the publication that these purported shortcomings of Twitter only became an issue after Elon Musk took over the company in late October, laid off thousands of employees, and rolled out changes to Twitter's content policy.