Sources: Twitter is working on generative AI after buying around 10K GPUs and reportedly poaching DeepMind researchers; a source says the work involves an LLM
- CEO Elon Musk is upping the computational power at Twitter to proceed with an AI play. — Musk has criticized ChatGPT …
The work also extends Twitter’s earlier use of neural-network technology through its Magic Pony acquisition, but shifts the focus from feature-level machine learning toward a general-purpose language-model capability.
First-order effects
Twitter must allocate newly acquired GPU capacity and recruited research talent to model development, creating an internal generative-AI program alongside its core social platform operations.
The reported LLM work gives Musk a potential technical base for the separate planned OpenAI-rival startup, with Twitter positioned as a source of infrastructure and platform data.
Second-order effects
Demand for scarce high-end AI compute rises as a social platform becomes a prospective model developer, reinforcing the infrastructure constraint facing firms that want to train frontier-scale systems.
Rival social platforms and AI labs face pressure to clarify whether their advantage lies in proprietary models, distribution, or access to user-generated data as platform owners pursue all three.
Third-order effects
If platforms increasingly pair proprietary data with dedicated compute and research teams, the AI market may consolidate around companies able to finance the full stack rather than around model developers alone.
The later reported collaboration between xAI and Tesla on silicon, software, and public-post training suggests a broader pattern of cross-company resource pooling; its durability depends on whether those shared resources produce competitive models and products.
The trend: This is an early instance of consumer internet platforms treating data, GPU fleets, and AI talent as a vertically integrated foundation for generative-AI products.
What six-month pause? — March 22: Elon Musk signed an “open letter” (funded by the Musk Foundation) urging AI labs to pause work on AI more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months …
Jan 2015: Elon says AI risks human extinction December 2015: Elon cofounds OpenAI March 2023: Elon says AI development must be stopped April 2023: Elon blows millions on DeepMind researchers and new GPUs to build an LLM ...things are accelerating! https://www.businessinsider.com/…
the researchers he “poached” must be dumb as shit because imagine moving TO twitter in 2023 knowing the guy can't even pay rent https://twitter.com/...
Interesting. We know it's all about the training data and that's the edge Reddit (FD: I founded it, sold it, then came back as exec chair + got shares for that) and even Quora have. Twitter kinda does. Imagine how valuable that is to the folks who need that edge. https://twitter.…
I wonder if ~10k video cards and the best minds of our generation can help him generate some content that's not just memes he stole from Reddit or uncritically reposted Russian propaganda. https://twitter.com/...
As I noted and as it was entirely expected, Elno's request to pause all AI development was just a vain attempt to give himself the time to catch-up with the technology developments happening. How. Surprising. (aside: I'm curious to see what this ML work is going to be for...) htt…
Knew as soon as he started talking about how everyone needed to pause AI developments, it was because he felt like he was behind. 💀 https://twitter.com/...
my question is, did he buy these second hand and were these cards mined on? Because those cards ain't good according to r/pcmasterace All the crypto bros who went bust trying to offload GPUs found a new home https://twitter.com/...
New. Elon Musk recently paid a lot of money for several thousand GPUs as an AI project within Twitter gets underway. Despite his frequent talk of the dangers of AI, not to mention Twitter's precarious financial position. More details: https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...