Elon Musk plans to charge new X users a nominal fee to allow them to post on the social network and address the bot issue.
In response to an X account that commented about modifications on X’s website, Musk said that charging a tiny price for new users was the “only way” to prevent the “onslaught of bots.”
“Current AI (and troll farms) can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease,” Musk added, referring to techniques such as CAPTCHA.
In response to another user, Musk later said that new users will be able to post for free three months after their creation.
Similar to many social network announcements, there are currently no details about the implementation date or potential costs for new members.
Last October, X began charging new, unconfirmed users $1 per year in New Zealand and the Philippines. New free users joining the site from these locations might view the postings but not engage with them. A fee was required to publish material, including repost, comment, bookmark, and quote posts.Musk may charge a fee that is comparable to other locations..
Earlier this month, X announced that the platform would begin a big cleanse of spam accounts, warning users that their following count might be harmed. However, with plans to charge new members, the social media business seems to be attempting to address the bot issue more effectively.
While Musk has spoken out against AI bots, X changed its policy last year to include a provision that public postings might be used to train machine learning algorithms or artificial intelligence models. Separately, Musk said in July 2023 that his AI business, xAI, will train models using public postings.
Earlier this month, xAI made its Grok chatbot accessible to Premium X subscribers who pay $8 per month. The chatbot was formerly accessible to those who paid $16 per month for the Premium+ tier. Fortune reported this week that X intends to make Grok accessible for users to create articles.
