Bankruptcy looms: With outburst, Elon Musk puts the survival of X in the balance

Elon Musk's X has gone down, with thousands of users reporting issues while accessing their timelines on the microblogging platform. Users have taken to other social media platforms to vent their frustrations about not being able to use X. According to Downdetector.com, the problem started at approximately 10:50 AM IST. More than 81000 reports were filed by users who were not able to access Twitter around 12:20 AM IST. The issue is widespread as people globally have reported issues regarding X.

 The European Union took the first formal steps against Elon Musk's X over allegedly breaking rules on how it handled illegal content and disinformation, in the first such probe of a major online platform since the bloc's Digital Services Act came into force this year. 

For a harrowing hour or two after Amazon.com Inc. launched its first satellites, it appeared the company might have lost one of them. The two prototypes had entered orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 2:24 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 6. An Amazon antenna on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius made contact with both, but during a subsequent handoff to another station, only one vehicle checked in. Amazon scanned the sky behind the first satellite for a signal from the second one but heard silence. 

Elon Musk claimed Saturday that advertisers were returning to X (formerly Twitter) after an exodus, at a Rome meeting where he also warned Italy's low birth rate could put off investors. The billionaire was a star guest at the Atreju political festival organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party.

For months, X (formerly Twitter) users have seen hilarious screenshots of Grok AI patiently, waiting for their turn to come. The generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot with humor and sarcasm is a product of xAI, an AI firm owned by Elon Musk. So far, it was in beta testing and only a select few verified X Premium Plus users, the highest tier of the subscription, had access. But now, Musk has announced the wider roll-out of the chatbot in the US to all X Premium Plus users, bringing the funny and “spicy” AI tool to the general public. With the launch announced, here are 10 things about Grok AI that you should know.

Every passing month in 2023, we have seen new breakthroughs being made by artificial intelligence (AI). While the tech revolution was started by OpenAI with its ChatGPT in November 2022, in the last year we have seen all kinds of AI tools. Some can help us draft an email, while others can analyze large amounts of data and provide actionable insights. But there is a separate class of AI chatbots that have emerged that focus entirely on entertainment and fun. One name that has risen to prominence in this space is Character.AI. The platform has a huge number of AI chatbots that allow you to do a range of things from playing games, participating in interactive stories, and talking to your favorite celebrities, living or dead, or a fictional character. You would not be talking to the person, of course, but an AI replica version of them. So, if you want to discuss the latest memes with X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk, ask questions about the theory of relativity with Albert Einstein, or want to know the secret to Spider-Man's heroism, this platform will surely help.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has recently disclosed its intention to secure up to a billion dollars in funding, as indicated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fox Business reported.

X Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino, who oversees the social network's relationships with advertisers, sent a memo to employees signalling her support of owner Elon Musk after his incendiary comments insulting brands that have backed away from the platform.

Elon Musk may be close to winning a long-running battle of wills with the Indian government led by PM Narendra Modi. Policy makers in New Delhi have been hoping to entice Tesla Inc. to produce electric vehicles in India. Musk, meanwhile, wants to sell his cars here without paying the exorbitant import tariffs that India charges.

Walmart Inc. has stopped advertising on the social media platform X, the latest major company to do so. 

Elon Musk, speaking at the New York Times' DealBook Summit, gave a shocking declaration to advertisers that have stopped showing ads on X (formerly Twitter) and are leaving the platform, telling them to stop advertising and that they were blackmailing the X owner “with their money”. Musk's defiance also came without any restraints as he used expletives multiple times in the conversation telling brands responsible for boycotting the platform such as IBM, Disney, Comcast, and others to go away and that people will be the judge if X shuts down due to advertisers' money.

The exodus of major advertisers from X (formerly Twitter), after it was revealed that ads were shown alongside antisemitic posts and other problematic content, resulted in a number of critics claiming that the platform may actually succumb due to a revenue crunch. Despite multiple posts suggesting otherwise by the owner and chief technical officer (CTO) Elon Musk, many have continued to make similar assertions even claiming that the continued political polarization may lead to users leaving in large numbers. Recently, a user posted a screenshot of data that highlighted that X gets more organic traffic through Google than competitors Instagram and Facebook which led to Musk reacting in a hilarious manner.