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Well sure if you give up on moderation, and close the platform to people who aren't signed in, and shut off the API then yes you didn't need the people supporti

Well sure if you give up on moderation, and close the platform to people who aren't signed in, and shut off the API then yes you didn't need the people supporting those parts of the platform. And I guess if you consider "the place with the MechaHitler AI" as good branding there's no arguing with you that it's doing just as well as Twitter.

mrweasel 1y ago
I don't agree with the direction Musk has set for X, but businesswise it's not doing worse. Twitter was a financial catastrophe before the take over, so you didn't need much improvement. Moderation was a financial drain, the API didn't make them any money and none of the users seems to care all that much about the platform not being open to users without an account... because they all have accounts and wasn't able to interact with you anyway. The media seems to get a good laugh out if Grok arguing the plight of white South Africans and is fondness to Hitler, but I'm not seeing journalists and politicians leaving X in droves because of it.
- amrocha 1y ago
  Most of the local journalists, politicians, game devs, and open source maintainers i followed left. It’s just US national pundits, bots, and bait monetization accounts there at this point.
- greenie_beans 1y ago
  you must not know many journalists because they certainly left in droves
  - Lu2025 1y ago
    Left where?
    - greenie_beans 1y ago
      twitter
- archagon 1y ago
  The job of journalists and politicians is to broadcast to as wide an audience as they can. It is not particularly surprising that many retain Twitter accounts for the marketing value.
  - bikezen 1y ago
    After NPR left twitter they saw a 1% drop in traffic from socials. It is not a useful platform. Source: https://niemanreports.org/npr-twitter-musk/ https://niemanreports.org/npr-twitter-musk/
- kevinventullo 1y ago
  I don’t think we can say for sure whether it’s doing worse businesswise since the numbers aren’t public. But consider e.g. https://www.adweek.com/media/advertisers-returning-to-x/ https://www.adweek.com/media/advertisers-returning-to-x/ “From January to September 2024, marketing intelligence platform MediaRadar found that (X’s former top advertisers including Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate Entertainment) collectively spent less than $3.3 million on X. This is a 98% year-over-year drop from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023.”
- freejazz 1y ago
  Well, the HitlerGrok thing happened yesterday... I ask this genuinely and without any intent to cause offense: given your name, are you a bit?
rockemsockem 1y ago
I will fondly remind folks that Grok isn't even the first LLM to become a Nazi on Twitter. Remember Tay Tweets? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot) Honestly I really don't think a bad release of an LLM that was rolled back is really the condemnation you think it is.
- amrocha 1y ago
  There’s a difference between a 3rd party twitter bot and grok. And it’s not a “bad release”, it’s been like this ever since it launched. Funny how ChatGPT is vanilla and grok somehow has a new racist thing to say every other week.
  - timschmidt 1y ago
    This ChatGPT? https://futurism.com/chatgpt-encouraged-murder-sam-altman https://futurism.com/chatgpt-encouraged-murder-sam-altman
    - amrocha 1y ago
      Not to say there aren’t problems with ChatGPT, but it generally steers clear of controversial subjects unless coaxed into it. Grok actively leans into racism and nazism.
      - timschmidt 1y ago
        It seems that there is tremendous incentive for people like yourself (I see you're very active in these comments) to claim that. But I see you've presented no quantitative evidence. Given the politicization of the systems and individuals involved, without evidence, it all reads like partisan mud slinging. Any LLM can be convinced to say just about anything. Pliny has shown that time and time again.
        arp242 1y ago
        Does ChatGPT start ranting about Jews and "White Genocide" unprompted? How can I even quantify that it doesn't do that? This is a classic "anything that can't be empirically measured is invalid and can be dismissed" mistake. It would be nice if we could easily empirically measure everything, but that's not how the world works. The ChatGPT article is of a rather different nature where ChatGPT went off the rails after a long conversation with a troubled person. That's not good, but just no the same as "start spewing racism on unrelated questions".

mrweasel 1y ago

I don't agree with the direction Musk has set for X, but businesswise it's not doing worse. Twitter was a financial catastrophe before the take over, so you didn't need much improvement. Moderation was a financial drain, the API didn't make them any money and none of the users seems to care all that much about the platform not being open to users without an account... because they all have accounts and wasn't able to interact with you anyway. The media seems to get a good laugh out if Grok arguing the plight of white South Africans and is fondness to Hitler, but I'm not seeing journalists and politicians leaving X in droves because of it.

amrocha 1y ago
Most of the local journalists, politicians, game devs, and open source maintainers i followed left. It’s just US national pundits, bots, and bait monetization accounts there at this point.
greenie_beans 1y ago
you must not know many journalists because they certainly left in droves
- Lu2025 1y ago
  Left where?
  - greenie_beans 1y ago
    twitter
archagon 1y ago
The job of journalists and politicians is to broadcast to as wide an audience as they can. It is not particularly surprising that many retain Twitter accounts for the marketing value.
- bikezen 1y ago
  After NPR left twitter they saw a 1% drop in traffic from socials. It is not a useful platform. Source: https://niemanreports.org/npr-twitter-musk/ https://niemanreports.org/npr-twitter-musk/
kevinventullo 1y ago
I don’t think we can say for sure whether it’s doing worse businesswise since the numbers aren’t public. But consider e.g. https://www.adweek.com/media/advertisers-returning-to-x/ https://www.adweek.com/media/advertisers-returning-to-x/ “From January to September 2024, marketing intelligence platform MediaRadar found that (X’s former top advertisers including Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate Entertainment) collectively spent less than $3.3 million on X. This is a 98% year-over-year drop from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023.”
freejazz 1y ago
Well, the HitlerGrok thing happened yesterday... I ask this genuinely and without any intent to cause offense: given your name, are you a bit?

rockemsockem 1y ago

I will fondly remind folks that Grok isn't even the first LLM to become a Nazi on Twitter. Remember Tay Tweets? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot) Honestly I really don't think a bad release of an LLM that was rolled back is really the condemnation you think it is.

amrocha 1y ago
There’s a difference between a 3rd party twitter bot and grok. And it’s not a “bad release”, it’s been like this ever since it launched. Funny how ChatGPT is vanilla and grok somehow has a new racist thing to say every other week.
- timschmidt 1y ago
  This ChatGPT? https://futurism.com/chatgpt-encouraged-murder-sam-altman https://futurism.com/chatgpt-encouraged-murder-sam-altman
  - amrocha 1y ago
    Not to say there aren’t problems with ChatGPT, but it generally steers clear of controversial subjects unless coaxed into it. Grok actively leans into racism and nazism.
    - timschmidt 1y ago
      It seems that there is tremendous incentive for people like yourself (I see you're very active in these comments) to claim that. But I see you've presented no quantitative evidence. Given the politicization of the systems and individuals involved, without evidence, it all reads like partisan mud slinging. Any LLM can be convinced to say just about anything. Pliny has shown that time and time again.
      - arp242 1y ago
        Does ChatGPT start ranting about Jews and "White Genocide" unprompted? How can I even quantify that it doesn't do that? This is a classic "anything that can't be empirically measured is invalid and can be dismissed" mistake. It would be nice if we could easily empirically measure everything, but that's not how the world works. The ChatGPT article is of a rather different nature where ChatGPT went off the rails after a long conversation with a troubled person. That's not good, but just no the same as "start spewing racism on unrelated questions".