Elon Musk takes control of @X account from user who had held it for 16 years
The official account for Elon Musk’s X app has switched from @Twiter to @X, after the previous owner of the account moved to a new one. The single-letter username had been registered to Gene X. Hwang, the co-founder of photo firm Orange Photography, for more than 16 years before Twitter’s sudden rebranding on Monday brought the account under scrutiny. On Tuesday, Mr Hwang said that neither Mr Musk nor X had reached out to him, however by Wednesday the account was under the control of the tech billionaire’s company. “Alls well that ends well,” Mr Hwang posted from a new account, @x12345678998765. It is unclear how much Mr Musk or X paid for the one-letter account, if anything at all. The Independent has reached out to both X and Mr Hwang for further information. Mr Musk has reportedly taken over other accounts without permission since he took over the platform in October 2022. According to Platformer editor Zoe Schiffer, the world’s richest person took over the username @e shortly after acquiring the company for $44 billion, despite the original owner of the account being unwilling to part with it. The @e account remains inactive, featuring the name ‘John Utah’ – the same as the protagonist of the 1991 film Point Break – and following just three accounts: Elon Musk, LAist and Nasa. X has also changed its other official accounts to ditch the Twitter branding, renaming its subscription service to @XBlue, and @TwitterSupport to @Support. The company’s Twitter signage was also removed from its San Francisco headquarters on Monday. The website domain X.com also now redirects to Twitter.com, while all of the site’s blue bird logos have been replaced with a crowd-sourced X logo. The hasty switch from one brand to another may result in legal difficulties for Mr Musk, according to trademark lawyers, after it was revealed that the billionaire does not own the intellectual property rights for the letter X when it relates to social networking. Tech rivals Meta and Microsoft both own trademarks for ‘X’ in different domains, with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg currently controlling the federal trademark for a blue-and-white letter ‘X’ for “social networking services”. “There’s a 100 per cent chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody,” one US-based IP lawyer said on Tuesday. Read More What is Elon Musk’s ‘everything app’ X? What is Elon Musk’s ‘everything app’ X? Elon Musk red-faced as police halt Twitter sign removal leaving firm called ‘ER’ Twitter to X: Why Elon Musk rebranded the social networking platform
2023-07-26 20:19
Albany International Delivers Advanced 3D Woven VTP Fitting to Aernnova for Clean Sky 2 Technology Demonstrator
LE BOURGET, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 20, 2023--
2023-06-21 04:29
Save 40% on the iRobot Braava Jet m6 robot mop this Prime Day
TL;DR: The iRobot Braava Jet m6 robot mop is on sale for $299.99 this Prime
2023-07-12 16:52
How to watch JioCinema for free from anywhere in the world
SAVE 85%: Private Internet Access is a powerful service that can reliably unblock JioCinema. A
2023-05-13 12:21
Best Early Black Friday PlayStation Game and Console Deals
It’s officially spooky season, the time to play those creepy, crawly, jump scare-y games. You
2023-11-21 06:52
Save 36% on a lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone
TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone (all languages) is on sale for £149.71, saving
2023-08-15 12:29
China’s ‘government-approved’ AI chatbot says Taiwan invasion is likely
A military takeover of Taiwan is likely, according to one of many Chinese government-approved artificial intelligencechatbots that seem to toe the ruling Communist Party’s official line. The island nation has been a self-governing democracy since its separation from the mainland following a civil war in 1949, but China has claimed it as part of its national territory. The chatbots have dubbed Taiwan an inseparable part of China. The Chinese government recently approved a number of AI chatbots for use in the country, including a bot named Ernie and developed by tech giant Baidu and TikTok owner ByteDance’s Doubao. When Bloomberg tested some of these AI services for how government oversight affected the accuracy of information provided by these chatbots, it found they appeared to be trained to follow the ruling Communist Party’s line. When asked whether Taiwan is a country, all the tested chatbots reportedly said the self-governed island was a part of China, and Baidu’s Ernie chatbot reportedly said a Chinese military takeover of Taiwan is likely. The Zhipu chatbot described China’s current economic situation, which experts said is at one of its weakest points in recent decades, to be “a mix of joys and sorrows”, reported Bloomberg. Another chatbot, SenseTime, reportedly described the economy as “very stable”. When asked to respond queries that may be deemed “sensitive content”, the Ernie bot was found to “change the subject”, while Zhipu would delete its response if it found it to be “controversial”, according to the report. Such generative AI tools are trained by analysing large quantities of data to respond to user queries with unique human-like replies. For instance, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has demonstrated a wide range of abilities, from summarising complex research, answering logical questions and also cracking business and medical school exams deemed crucial for students to pass. A number of Chinese companies have sought to build their own version of AI chatbots, prompting China’s cyberspace regulator to release ground rules for companies developing generative AI services. But prior to the launch of these chatbots, the Chinese government made several months-long efforts to regulate the generative AI industry. Some of the proposed rules have sought to ensure the content of Chinese AI systems reflect “socialist core values” and avoid information undermining “state power” or “national unity”. Baidu’s launch of Ernie for full public use on Thursday led to the company’s stock price rising by over 3 per cent following the announcement. Other AI firms such as Baichuan and Zhipu AI also launched their ChatGPT-like large language models on Thursday. The ruling Communist Party issued regulations on 15 August that required tech companies to carry out a security review of their chatbots, and obtain approvals before their products are publicly launched. It also requires companies providing such AI services to comply with government data requests, regulations which are currently absent in the US. Read More China's Baidu makes AI chatbot Ernie Bot publicly available Need to know about live-saving CPR? A new study says it's probably wise not to ask Alexa or Siri AI can write better university assignments than students, report suggests India’s moon rover finds sulphur and several other elements near lunar south pole Russian cyber-attacks ‘relentless’ as threat of WW3 grows, expert warns How new bike technology could help cyclists tell drivers not to crash into them
2023-09-04 14:52
Seckton's low-tech digital camera is the best $40 you’ll ever spend as a parent
Kids love to take pictures. Just ask parents, caregivers, or anyone who’s ever had to
2023-05-31 00:58
Instagram might make it harder for you to send an unsolicited dick pic
In Maybe This Is Potentially Good News, it looks like Instagram is going to help
2023-06-29 01:17
Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: The upgrade is worth the money
The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, despite the fancy name, is a simple device. It's exactly
2023-07-02 17:48
OpenAI CEO sees 'huge' Israeli role in reducing risks from the technology
By Steven Scheer TEL AVIV OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted on Monday a "huge role" for Israel in
2023-06-05 21:30
Why is it so rare to hear about Western cyber-attacks?
Could a cyber-attack on a Russian technology company provide a rare insight into a Western hack?
2023-06-23 09:49
You Might Like...
Toshiba ELERA™ Commerce Platform Wins 2023 ‘Disruptors in Retail’ Globee® Award
Post Malone and Joe Rogan call the NPC TikTok trend 'crazy' and 'strange'
Nagoya Port Delays Restart Following Alleged Ransomware Attack
Bitwarden Recognized as a Leading High Performer in the G2 Enterprise Grid® Report for Password Managers
Shrinking Stablecoin Market Is Sending Mixed Signals on Crypto
Manage your business for life with this $49.99 app
How to watch Amazon Freevee for free from anywhere in the world
Alpine Tunnel Chaos Puts Crucial European Network Under Strain
