The owner of Twitter plans to make the platforms recommendation algorithm open source as soon as next week, the entrepreneur wrote on Tuesday.
The move is designed to pull the veil off the inner workings of the software following persistent perceived biasfirst from the right end of the political spectrum and now the leftthat Twitter is placing its heavy thumb on the scales of social debate.
Our algorithm is made open source next week, Musk posted in a Twitter reply.
Musks timelines have a notorious tendency to fall short, so there is no certainty he will fulfill his promise. In the past he has changed his mind (or at least acted like he did) when it came to key strategic decisions, like cancelling a new Tesla car model.
But if he does follow through, the entrepreneur will make good on a long-held promise that users will be able to see whether there is any bias in the algorithm that censors or boosts speech speech on the platform in either one direction or the other. And Musks move to make the algorithm public would be highly unusual, as most tech companies keep the software code powering their algorithm a tightly-held corporate secret.
Twitter algorithm should be open source
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2022
In May, Musk said any human intervention in Twitters recommendation algorithm must be clearly identified if the platform hopes to earn back the confidence of all users: Then, trust will be deserved, he wrote. It was one of several instances that he pushed for open sourcing the code before, during and after his tumultuous acquisition of the company.
The issue of open sourcing Twitters algorithm goes to the very core of Musks stated interest in the platform, and served at least in partaccording to Muskas the genesis for his unsolicited $44 billion takeover bid.
Before he accumulated a stake in Twitter, he posed one important question to its users
On March 24 of last year, before he had made a move on the company, Musk cast doubt on the intentions behind Twitters algorithm and any potential de facto bias having a major effect on public discourse. How do we know whats really happening? he asked in a tweet.
Minutes later, he decided to run a poll asking users whether Twitters crucial recommendation code should be open source, an opinion that ended up being shared by 83% of the 1.1 million accounts that responded.
Not to mention potential bugs in the code. Open source is the way to go to solve both trust and efficacy.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2022
Upon seeing the poll, Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of data company Palantir, texted him, according to messages that were later revealed in court. He said he loved the idea about making Twitters algorithm open source, and would soon speak about the dangers of Big Tech at a policy retreat for Republican members of Congress,
Our public squares need to not have arbitrary sketchy censorship, Lonsdale wrote, adding what we have right now is hidden corruption.
The following day Musk polled users whether Twitter rigorously adheres to the principle of free speech, caveating his question with the words: The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
It was at that point that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey wrote to Musk via text on March 26, saying that he agreed with the idea that Twitters algorithm needed to be open sourced, and would arrange a meeting between Musk and the board over whether the Tesla CEO, who in his words gets its importance, could join as a director.
I believe it must be an open source protocol, funded by a foundation of sorts that doesnt own the protocol, only advances it, Dorsey argued in his message, to which Musk replied super interesting idea.
What followed next is well knownMusk bought Twitter.
If the billionaire entrepreneur does make good on his promise next week, the world will finally get an answer as to what great and powerful software code lies right behind the curtain.
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