EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
In a move sparking intense speculation, Twitter technically “no longer exists” after a merge with X Corp., according to a document submitted to a California court earlier this month.
What the change means for Twitter is unclear. In the past, Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, suggested that purchasing the company would accelerate plans to create company X — Which would function as an “everything app” along the lines of WeChat.
Owned by Tencent Holdings, China’s WeChat super-app can be used to message people, transfer funds, order food using a QR code, go shopping and more.
Just X Corp. now
Musk’s tweet about the X Corp. shift attracted more than 13 million views within just a few hours. In a more formal capacity, Twitter had no comment about the rebranding.
It’s known that Musk appreciates the letter X. It’s in the name of his company Space X. In addition, the online bank that he co-founded in 1999 was originally named X.com, eventually rebranding as PayPal. His baby boy was named X Æ A-12.
Musk first hinted at his vision for an “everything app” last fall, just before his purchase of Twitter was finalized.
X Holdings Corp.
Filings reveal that the parent company of X Corp. is X Holdings Corp. No publicly traded entity owns 10% (or more) of X Corp. stock or X Holdings Corp. stock at this time.
In other Twitter news…Bird to Doge
At the beginning of this month, Twitter switched its icon from that of the blue bird to the shiba inu image associated with the dogecoin cryptocurrency. It’s since been switched back.
Also in early April, Twitter announced a new feature that will enable Twitter Blue subscribers to post 10,000 character-long posts. Twitter developers also added the capacity to bold and italicize text.
The long-form writing option isn’t completely new. In June of last year, Twitter introduced a program called Twitter Notes, although that program was shut down under Musk.
NPR, PBS and other news agencies bail
A spokesperson for PBS confirmed to Axios that PBS has “no plans to resume tweeting” after Twitter recently added a misleading “government-funded media” label. Several other American news agencies appear to have followed suit, from NPR to Hawaii Public Radio.
Twitter Blue’s half ads
Those who subscribe to Twitter Blue will see half the number of ads in their timelines as compared to non-paid users.
“As you scroll, you will see approximately twice as many organic or non-promoted Tweets placed in between promoted Tweets or ads. There may be times when there are more or fewer non-promoted Tweets between promoted Tweets,” says Twitters description of the feature.
Beyond Twitter…A rival to OpenAI
Beyond transforming Twitter, Elon Musk plans to develop a new artificial intelligence startup that can compete with ChatGPT parent company OpenAI.
People familiar with the matter say that Musk is assembling a team of artificial intelligence researchers and engineers. Musk is also in discussions with investors about funding his new venture.
On March 9th of this year, Musk incorporated a company named X.AI, according to Nevada business records. He’s listed as the company’s only director, and an ex-Morgan Stanly banker, who manages Musk’s wealth, is listed as the company’s secretary.
For the OpenAI rival project, Musk has secured thousands of high-powered GPU processors from a high-profile technology company. In case you’re unfamiliar, GPUs are high-end chips that can ingest large quantities of data and produce realistic imagery and human-style writing.
The new initiatives have caused confusion and concern in some corners of the AI community, as Musk recently led a letter, co-signed by thousands of other prominent tech leaders, calling for a six month moratorium on the development of GPT-type language learning models. The letter cites safety concerns.
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