Business
Twitter Restricts Number Of Posts Users Can Read In AI Tussle
Elon Musk announced Saturday that Twitter would temporarily restrict how many tweets users could read per day, in a move meant to tamp down on the use of the site’s data by artificial intelligence companies.
The platform is limiting verified accounts to reading 6,000 tweets a day. Non-verified users — the free accounts that make up the majority of users — are limited to reading 600 tweets per day.
New unverified accounts would be limited to 300 tweets.
The decision was made “to address extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation” by third-party platforms, Musk said in a tweet Saturday afternoon, as some users quickly hit their limits.
“Goodbye Twitter” was a trending topic in the United States following Musk’s announcement.
Twitter would “soon” raise the ceiling to 8,000 tweets per day for verified accounts, 800 for unverified accounts and 400 for new unverified accounts, Musk said.
Twitter’s billionaire owner did not give a timeline for how long the measures would be in place.
The day before, Musk had announced that it would no longer be possible to read tweets on the site without an account.
Much of the data scraping was coming from firms using it to build their AI models, Musk said, to the point that it was causing traffic issues with the site.
In creating AI that can respond in a human-like capacity, many companies feed them examples of real-life conversations from social media sites.
“Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience,” Musk said.
“Almost every company doing AI, from startups to some of the biggest corporations on Earth, was scraping vast amounts of data,” he said.
“It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation.”
Twitter is not the only social media giant to have to wrangle with the rapid acceleration of the AI sector.
In mid-June, Reddit raised prices on third-party developers that were using its data and sweeping up conversations posted on its forums.
It proved a controversial move, as many regular users also accessed the site via third-party platforms, and marked a shift from previous arrangements where social media data had generally been provided for free or a small charge.
AFP
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Business
WEF could appoint Lagarde as its next chair, sources say
The WEF’s Board of Trustees, which includes Lagarde herself, was due to meet on November 2 and could elect her as its next chair, said the people close to the organisation, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
•European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde
The World Economic Forum could appoint Christine Lagarde as its next chair as soon as next month, four people close to the organisation told Reuters, meaning she would step down early as European Central Bank chief and trigger a wider reshuffle at the top of the ECB.Lagarde’s ECB term is scheduled to end in October 2027.
Leaving early would give European Union leaders a chance to pick a new ECB President before France’s spring presidential election, which opinion polls suggest the far-right could win, and could pave the way for a deal involving two other senior ECB roles.
The WEF’s Board of Trustees, which includes Lagarde herself, was due to meet on November 2 and could elect her as its next chair, said the people close to the organisation, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
No final decision has been taken yet, they said.
A spokesperson for the WEF said the forum could not confirm when the next full Board of Trustees meeting would take place, but that the aim was to hold one before the end of the year.
Business
Germany plans tax on sugary drinks
The tax is expected to generate additional revenue for the federal government of €690 million in 2027 and €925 million in 2028.
The German cabinet has approved draft legislation to tax sugary drinks in Europe’s biggest economy.
If passed by the German Bundestag, the tax will take effect on 1 July 2027.
The coalition aims to raise revenue for the federal budget while encouraging manufacturers to reduce sugar content and offer healthier products.
The levy is intended to ease pressure on the healthcare system, which faces costs of more than €2 billion every year linked to the high consumption of sugary drinks, which contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.
According to the federal government, Berlin is using the tax to implement “what associations from the fields of health, science, child protection, and consumer protection have long been demanding.”
The tax is expected to generate additional revenue for the federal government of €690 million in 2027 and €925 million in 2028.
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