Hey everybody, you're back to the Elon Musk podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads, the ShapeSpaceX, Tesla, X, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. And I'm your host, Will Walden. One more thing before we start. Google Podcasts is being discontinued by Google. So if you want to continue getting episodes of the Elon Musk podcast, please check us out over at
YouTube Music. Search us out over there, and that's where you'll be able to find our podcast through Google products. Thank you so much for understanding. I had no control over this. Google pulled the Google Podcast app off of Android, and I want to let you know where to continue finding the show. Over at YouTube Music, search for Elon Musk podcast. Let me ask you a question. Would
you pay to be part of a social media network? More importantly, would you pay to be a user on Elon Musk's x .com? So Elon Musk has just announced a plan to charge new users on the social media platform x, formerly known as Twitter, of course, a fee to post content. Would you pay for that? That's the question. This aims to address the ongoing issue about accounts that
plague the platform. Musk believes that imposing a small fee on new users is essential for the future. For combating the influx of these fake accounts. Now, since acquiring Twitter, though, in 2022, Musk has repeatedly floated the idea
of a user fee. He suggests that such a fee could effectively deter the creation of spam accounts driven by artificial intelligence and coordinating with troll farms, which can easily bypass traditional security measures such as CAPTCHA. Now, as part of an experimental policy implemented in October of 2023, x began charging new unverified users in New Zealand and the Philippines an annual
fee of $1. Now, this fee enabled these users to engage fully with the platform, allowing them to post and interact with other content, which was otherwise restricted. Now, the issue of bots on x has been a persistent challenge, one that Elon Musk has vowed to conquer even before finalizing his
purchase of the platform. His strategy has involved various initiatives aimed at reducing these unwanted accounts, which not only distort user engagement metrics, but also compromise the overall user experience. On April 15 of this year, attention was drawn to a change in x's policy that indicated a potential expansion of the annual user fee to additional
countries. This update was first spotted by an automated tracking account on x and was later confirmed by Elon Musk in a series of posts. Musk said, unfortunately, a small fee for new user right access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. Current AI and troll farms can
pass the quote, are you a bot test with ease? Now, he shows that he's using some rationale for the policy shift, highlighting the ineffectiveness of conventional security measures against sophisticated automated AI systems. Now, despite the introduction of a user fee, Musk clarified that new users would not be indefinitely bound to
this fee. You mentioned that after an initial three months, new users would gain full access to the platform without any payment, thus providing a balance between initial security measures and eventual user freedom. Now, let me ask you a question. If the bots are so powerful that they can bypass everything $1 fee doesn't seem like a lot if you can gain $1 ,000 $10 ,000 $100 ,000 from using the
platform with your bot. Of course, on the black market, on the gray market, there are credit cards that are stolen and possibility that they could use those credit cards with their bots to use their influence to make more money than $1 on the platform per year. The introduction of fees for new users coincides with broader efforts by X to cleanse the platform of spam and bots accounts,
though. Earlier in the month, X initiated a major purge aimed at reducing these accounts, though the impact on the platform's bot population remains to be seen. There's no data out there yet from Elon Musk or from X. Now, Musk's approach to managing X also involves leveraging the platform's data for his other ventures. For instance, his AI company, X AI utilizes public posts from X to train his
machine learning algorithms. This integration shows that Elon is using his broader vision and all of his companies combined to make X AI better. But if there are bot accounts on X, he's not getting clean data for his AI models. And that's going to be a huge problem in the future. Now, X's strategy to monetize and also, let's say, enhance user engagement includes making its advanced chatbot grok available to
premium users. And like I said, if that's trained on bot information, there's no real upside to it. Because if there's millions of bots, bot accounts compared to human accounts, it's going to be a tough go for grok at this point. Now, grok used to be offered at a higher subscription tier, and it's now more accessible, potentially increasing its use and relevance within the user base. Now,
the financial aspect of the changes is significant. X has been facing financial challenges with a reported 71 % drop in its value since Musk's takeover. The introduction of a posting fee could provide a new revenue stream at a time when the platform has experienced significant advertising revenue losses.
Now, the decline in advertising dollars was particularly stark following a backlash from advertisers over content moderation issues. Companies like Comcast, Apple, and the Walt Disney Company withdrew their ads after a report service of ads appearing next to inappropriate content, including pro Nazi and hate speech. Now, Musk's direct responses to
advertisers concerns have been controversial. In an interview, he bluntly criticized those withdrawing their advertising from X, which reflects his unconventional approach to business and public relations. In response to the ongoing challenges with brand safety, though, third party firms like double verify have been involved in assessing the suitability of content on X for
advertisers. There have been discrepancies in these assessments indicating ongoing issues with maintaining a brand safe environment. The bot problem at X is not just a nuisance, but it's a huge operational challenge impacting everything from user experience to advertising trust and revenue. And Musk's decision to impose a posting fee on new users is a strategic move to mitigate these issues, albeit we don't know how
effective this is going to be. And neither does Elon at this point, could drive some users away. I know to post on X. There's no reason for me to pay a dollar for that. I'll just move to a different platform. Most people think the same way. And
these platforms have been historically free. And we can post whatever we want whenever we want to Facebook, even threads now, all of these platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify for podcasters where we post this podcast, everything's free to post. Why would I pay even a dollar to be able to post on this platform? Now this policy change has sparked a variety of reactions like mine right there. And
I would love to hear what you say about it. Because if you're a user of X, you should be concerned about this. Some view the fee as a necessary evil, though, and I totally understand that. If there are hundreds of millions of bots running around doing malicious things, putting a barrier to entry in front of them
is one of the best ways to mitigate this. Now, these the quality of interactions on X, while others are concerned about the potential barrier it creates for new users. I can understand that too.
Maybe you don't have a dollar to interact with these platforms, maybe you're in a financial situation, maybe you're in a different country than the United States, and you don't make a lot of money, you don't make a dollar that you can put towards social media. So
I can understand that too. And you'd probably move platforms like I was talking about before, move over to threads or just move to Instagram or some other platform Facebook, etc. So you could post your
content. And that's understandable. And as X continues to evolve under Musk's leadership, the effectiveness of this new fee system in combating bots will be important all over stakeholders from users to advertisers will be watching closely to see what happens with his imposed $1 fee for X.