Many social media platforms are infested with bots, especially X. And to curb them, Elon is planning to charge new users a fee to enable them to perform activities on X. There are different takes on how this is going to pan out, but Musk thinks it's the best solution.
These days, you go around and you find activities of bots in the comment sections, as well as making posts, spamming, and really clogging up the space. "Current AI (and troll farms) can pass "are you a bot" with ease, Elon says in a reply to an X post, referring to bot blocking tools like CAPTCHA. And so paying a small fee is the "only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots."
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1779930065469383166
Elon says, however, that the new accounts will be able to perform actions for free after three months. A simple solution that should really slow down the incessant spread of bots on X.
There is the possibility that some users who are used to using social media for free will be hesitant to pay a fee and, therefore, will be cut off from being able to interact. However, the belief remains firm that introducing a fee to new users will help keep X clean and safe from bots.
https://x.com/Safety/status/1775942160509989256
Since the fee will only be small, it won't be much of a demand on new users and will still work well to curb bot activity. This idea was already implemented in New Zealand and the Philippines last year, where unverified users are now charged $1 per year. New users could only read posts but were unable to post, like, repost, reply, or do anything. Elon may implement a similar cost in other places.
Checkmark Changes
Premium and Premium+ users have the ability to hide their blue checkmarks if they want to. It has been the usual thing for a long time now; however, X is taking that away soon, as they have been warning users lately. There was no time given for when this would happen, however.
With Elon's recent announcement about extending the blue checkmarks to non-paying users, there's a bit of confusion on what these checkmarks really mean.
Essentially, accounts that have over 2500 verified (premium) users following them will get premium features for free. And accounts with over 5,000 will get Premium+ for free.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1773147956041978257?t=6Rtsx6ipE-Xd7Vzic6TSGA&s=19
- elonmusk
Before Twitter became X and was still Twitter, a blue checkmark indicated that an account was influential to some extent. And getting one wasn't even remotely as easy as it is now—by just paying for it. With the blue checkmark, it was way too easy to tell if an account was legit and not fake. We easily identified public figures and brands back then.
Now, people get the blue checkmark for different reasons, as things have changed. People get to use the premium benefits. However, it still remains that disguising between people to know the real deal is just a lot harder. Speaking of benefits...
Grok for Premium Users
Grok, X's AI chatbot resident on X, was released recently, but it was only accesible by Premium+ users, those that pay $16 for subscription. Now it is available to Premium users and they can now use the Chatbot.
You can chat with Grok in Regular Mode and Fun Mode. And just like most chatbots, it indicates that it could give innaccurate answers and that users should verify.
One thing that makes Grok stand out from the others is that it has the ability to access real-time data on X. Ask it “What’s happening in AI today?” and Grok will piece together a response from very recent headlines, while ChatGPT will provide only vague answers that reflect the limits of its training data (and filters on its web access). Source
Since Twitter became X, there's been changes every now and then—surprising ones. And we are going to keep hearing more from Elon in the future. For now, here are a few updates.
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Image from TechCrunch
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