Elon Musk has purchased roughly 10,000 GPUs for an artificial-intelligence project within Twitter, reports Business Insider. Critics of the Tesla CEO probably aren’t amused, as Musk, who took over Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, co-signed a letter last month that called for a pause in AI research, indicating some level of hypocrisy. Sources aren’t sure what Twitter and Musk are planning to use their generative AI for, but in any case, NVIDIA appears to be reaping the benefits of the AI boom again, with its A100 GPUs being valued at $10,000 each. According to a new court document, Twitter, Inc. no longer exists, having been merged into X Corp. as part of Musk’s plan to create some sort of universal app.
From a Business Insider report (alternate link):
It’s unclear exactly what Twitter will use generative AI for, the people familiar said. One use could be improving search, something Musk has complained about. He even hired the security developer George Hotz for a three-month internship to “fix” the search function. Hotz left after just one month.
Another possible use is advertising, the backbone of social-media platforms, the people familiar said. Twitter has struggled to woo advertisers since Musk took over and changed numerous policies. Generative AI has the capability, if trained for the use, to create new advertising images and text to target specific audiences.
GPUs can be costly. Nvidia, which is estimated to have 95% of the market, manufactures a GPU for large AI models that costs $10,000. Musk, who has repeatedly said Twitter is on unstable financial footing, most likely spent many tens of millions of dollars to add so many GPUs, the people familiar said.
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2023