Digital
Twitter threatens to take Meta to court; Jack Dorsey terms Threads ‘Twitter clone’
Mumbai: Threads, the new app launched by Meta has taken the industry by storm. It has stirred many – undeniably Elon Musk’s Twitter.
As per media reports, Twitter’s legal representatives sent a letter to Meta on 5 July, threatening to sue the latter. In the letter, Twitter accused Meta of hiring former Twitter employees and employing trade secrets to develop Threads. Additionally, Twitter requested Meta to preserve internal documents pertinent to the continuing dispute between the two companies.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey recently referred to Threads as a ‘Twitter clone’. The comment was made on 6 July; Dorsey tweeted, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 7 Twitter clones.”
Musk, too, tweeted, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that within just two hours of its release, more than two million people downloaded the app. The number of downloads rapidly escalated, reaching five million within four hours and surpassing 10 million by the end of the day. By the next morning, Threads had been downloaded over 30 million times.
According to numbers quoted in media reports, in less than 24 hours, Threads emerged as the fastest-growing app ever, setting itself as a prospective rival to Twitter. It outdid ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, which garnered one million downloads in its initial five days.
Prominent Twitter users, such as Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Gates, Shakira and Oprah Winfrey, rapidly joined Threads and began sharing posts.
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.
