Earlier this week, throughout an interview with CNBC, Twitter chief Elon Musk mentioned his propensity to tweet controversial and even, at instances, unfaithful issues, noting that:
“I’ll say what I would like, and if the consequence of that’s shedding cash, so be it.”
This has been a typical chorus for Musk. Regardless of paying $44 billion for Twitter, he’s not actually concerned about the financial aspect, and he received’t permit this factor to affect his decision-making on the app.
Which, in some methods, is an admirable stance, underlining his acknowledged dedication to free speech, and permitting folks to say what they like within the app. However however, Musk has fairness companions and buyers who could also be much less impressed with this strategy.
This was highlighted once more at the moment when Twitter sent a letter to Microsoft, accusing the corporate of misusing Twitter’s information to coach its synthetic intelligence applied sciences.
As per The New York Times:
“Within the letter, which was reviewed by The New York Occasions, Twitter mentioned Microsoft had violated an settlement over its information and had declined to pay for that utilization. In some instances, the letter mentioned, Microsoft had used extra Twitter information than it was presupposed to. Microsoft additionally shared the Twitter information with authorities companies with out permission, the letter mentioned.”
The letter is the most recent in Musk’s quest for retaliation towards OpenAI, the corporate behind ChatGPT, and varied different generative AI instruments.
Musk, who was an early investor in OpenAI, has repeatedly expressed his annoyance that his early $100 million ‘donation’ to the corporate has been used to remodel it right into a $29 billion business. And with Microsoft taking a large stake in OpenAI, it too now stands to learn – and as such, Musk now desires to claw again his share of that income consumption.
With this in thoughts, Musk has already restricted OpenAI’s access to Twitter data, which has been used to gas its generative AI fashions, whereas additionally rising how a lot it prices for all firms to entry the identical. This newest push stems from Musk’s view that OpenAI benefited from Twitter information, which, once more, he sees as successfully stealing from him personally.
They educated illegally utilizing Twitter information. Lawsuit time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
Musk’s public battle towards OpenAI and Microsoft has already seen Microsoft remove Twitter from its Digital Marketing Center element, which can remove the promotion of Twitter advertisements to Microsoft companions. It’s exhausting to say what sort of affect that’ll have on Twitter’s backside line. However with Twitter’s advert income – it’s major supply of revenue – already down by 50% since Musk took over, an extra decline of any sort might be thought-about important.
However as Musk says, the cash is just not his major concern. And whereas a public battle with a major advert associate is just not an ideal look, Elon, as he’s proven, goes to do what he likes, whatever the penalties.
That features making selections primarily based on private grudges, which might affect all of Twitter’s companions.
It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how this strategy modifications, or not, beneath incoming Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, an advert business veteran, who’ll be tasked with reigniting its enterprise relationships.
Will that see Twitter re-evaluate its strategy, or will Musk proceed to override Yaccarino in instances the place he has a private stake?
