Musk to open-source X's algorithm next week: What it means
What's the story
Elon Musk has announced that his social media platform, X, will make its new algorithm open-source within a week. The move comes as part of an effort to increase transparency about how content is curated and displayed on the platform. The billionaire tech mogul shared the news in a post on X, saying it would include "all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users."
Update frequency
Commitment to regular updates and transparency
Musk also promised that the open-sourcing of the algorithm would be a recurring process, with updates every four weeks. These updates will come with detailed developer notes explaining any changes made. The announcement comes amid criticism over Grok's role in generating deepfake nudes, raising questions about the timing of this transparency initiative from X.
Algorithm concerns
X's algorithm issues and AI integration
In October, Musk admitted that a "significant bug" had been found in the platform's "For You" algorithm. He promised a fix at the time. The company has also been working to integrate more artificial intelligence (AI) into its recommendation system for X, using Grok, Musk's AI chatbot. However, despite promises to make some of these algorithms public, progress has been inconsistent.
AI integration
Musk's vision for X's recommendation engine
Musk had previously said that he wanted X's recommendation engine to be "purely AI." He also promised an open-source algorithm every four weeks. The tech mogul said improvements in users' feeds were due to the increased use of Grok and other AI tools, not individual changes in heuristics. The company was working on having all over 100 million daily posts evaluated by Grok, which would recommend content most relevant to each user.
Image concerns
Grok's image-generation capabilities face criticism
Grok's image-generation capabilities have drawn flak from global regulators over a surge of AI-generated images sexualizing women and children on X. As of Friday, Grok told users they would need a paid subscription to generate and edit images. These features were first rolled out on X for free with daily limits.
Regulatory challenges
Regulatory scrutiny and algorithm sharing requests
Indonesia has blocked access to Grok after an investigation into its generation of sexual content. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on Musk's X to urgently "get their act together" over the sexualized images. European regulators have also intensified scrutiny of the company, focusing on misinformation, inadequate content moderation, and lack of transparency. In July, French authorities asked the company to share its algorithm as part of a probe into bias and manipulation allegations.