Digital
‘Twitter has spoken’, says Musk as 65% back his claims on fake users in poll
Mumbai: The Twitter-Elon Musk wrangle does not seem to be resolving itself any time soon, with both sides trading charges and counter charges. A Twitter poll by the Tesla CEO has revealed that nearly 65 per cent of his followers do not believe Twitter’s claims on the percentage of fake/spam accounts on the platform.
The Tesla CEO conducted the poll on Saturday on whether “less than five per cent of Twitter daily users are fake/spam?” to be answered with a Yes/No. The billionaire triumphantly declared the results of the online poll on Monday: “Twitter has spoken …”, disclosing that 64.9 per cent of over eight lakh users who participated in the poll believe that Twitter’s claims that less than five per cent of its active users are bots is not true.
Twitter has spoken …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2022
Some of the Twitterati went so far as to accuse the networking giant of trying to hide its actual bot count, with Musk emphatically agreeing to the accusation.
The Tesla CEO is engaged in a fierce legal battle with Twitter after he backed out of his $44 billion acquisition deal, claiming the social media giant did not keep up its part of the deal by disclosing the correct data on spam and bot accounts on the platform. Twitter claims that spam profiles account for only five per cent of its daily active users.
Earlier, Musk challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a “public debate” over the issue of fake accounts on the platform. In multiple tweets, while replying to a follower’s tweet summarising the highlights of the $44 billion acquisition offer to buy Twitter, Musk asserted that the social media company’s method of estimating spam bots and accounts is flawed and “materially false.”
The billionaire currently faces a lawsuit after breaching the $44 billion acquisition agreement of the social media company.
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Digital
OpenAI’s Stargate lead Peter Hoeschele exits with two senior leaders
Trio behind compute push set to join new startup amid leadership reshuffle
SAN FRANCISCO: Peter Hoeschele, a key figure behind OpenAI’s early Stargate data centre initiative, has exited the company, according to a report by The Information.
The departure is part of a broader leadership shift, with two other senior executives, Shamez Hemani and Anuj Saharan, also set to leave in the coming days. All three are expected to join the same new startup, although details about the venture remain under wraps.
The trio played a central role in OpenAI’s Stargate effort, an initiative aimed at building large-scale data centre capacity in-house to reduce reliance on external infrastructure providers. Their exits mark a notable moment for the company’s compute strategy as it continues to scale rapidly.
OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to The Information, “We’re grateful for the contributions Peter, Shamez, and Anuj have made to OpenAI and wish them the very best in what comes next.” The company also pointed to the recent appointment of Sachin Katti to lead its industrial compute organisation, signalling continuity in its infrastructure roadmap.
OpenAI has indicated that it does not plan to directly replace Hoeschele’s role, suggesting a possible restructuring of responsibilities within the team.
As competition intensifies in the race to build next-generation AI systems, leadership changes in core infrastructure teams are likely to draw close attention. For now, the spotlight shifts to what this departing trio builds next, and how OpenAI adapts as it scales its ambitions.
