Elon Musk to open source Twitter's algorithm on March 31
Elon Musk has revealed a fresh set of Twitter updates. In the latest turn of events, the CEO has disclosed that the microblogging platform will use artificial intelligence to "detect and highlight manipulation of public opinion." Additionally, Twitter will open-source codes used to recommend tweets starting March 31. "Open source is the way to go to solve both trust and efficacy," said Musk.
Why does this story matter?
Manipulation of public opinion was believed to be a continued practice before Musk's Twitter takeover. The CEO hasn't revealed the data and parameters that will be fed to the AI for identification. However, going by the latest announcement, things are believed to improve in some way. Additionally, by open-sourcing the algorithm, Twitter will be able to challenge its open-source alternatives, like Mastodon and Nostr.
Using AI to detect and highlight public opinion manipulation
Musk declares that the microblogging platform will employ AI to identify "manipulation of public opinion." The announcement comes at a time when Twitter is facing intense criticism for its lax content moderation policies. "In the months ahead, we will use AI to detect and highlight manipulation of public opinion on this platform. Let's see what the psy ops cat drags in ..." Musk tweeted.
Open-sourcing the code
Twitter has been extensively reliant on technology to weed out certain manual content inspections. Musk's announcement to open source the long-secret algorithm for recommending tweets will allow users to easily access the code, and modify or redistribute it. It will establish a collaborative, decentralized ecosystem that relies on peer review and community output, which will be relatively cheaper.
The "algorithm" is highly complex: Musk
On March 31, Twitter will open source all code used to recommend tweets. According to Musk, the "algorithm" is overly complex and not fully understood internally. People will discover many silly things, but the issues will be patched as soon as they are discovered. Providing code transparency will improve the recommendation quality and earn the trust of the users, believes Musk.
Musk has always advocated for Twitter's algorithm to be open-sourced
Musk has always supported making Twitter's algorithm publicly available even before becoming the CEO. He conducted a poll in March 2022, allowing Twitterati to determine whether Twitter algorithm should be open source, and a resounding majority chose to support it. As per the latest announcement, Twitter is working on a streamlined approach to serving more compelling tweets and that too will be open source.
Musk is also attempting to enhance user experience on Twitter
Musk recently introduced some new features in order to enhance the user experience on Twitter. The users now have the ability to create long-form tweets with 10,000 characters. This feature is currently limited to Blue subscribers. In addition, every user can reply to individual DMs with emojis. However, they can only choose from seven emojis at the moment.
