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Elon Musk has hired a world-famous hacker to fix the issues with Twitter’s search functionality.
Musk has looked to George Hotz, a man who became famous at 17 years of age for being the first person to ever jailbreak an iPhone.
He is also known for reverse engineering the PS3 and founding Comma.ai, an AI start-up company specialising in vehicle automation. He previously turned down a job working at Musk’s Tesla on driver-assistance tech.
Hotz was hired by Musk as an intern for Twitter after he showed support for the harsh ultimatum he gave his employees — work “long hours at high intensity” or leave.
“This is the attitude that builds incredible things. Let all the people who don’t desire greatness leave,” said Hotz on Twitter.
Hotz agreed to a 12-week internship at Twitter to fix the search engine issue, in return for the cost of living in San Francisco.
I’ll put my money where my mouth is. I’m down for a 12 week internship at Twitter for cost of living in SF.
— George Hotz ? (@realGeorgeHotz) November 16, 2022
It’s not about accumulating capital in a dead world, it’s about making the world alive.
“Sure, let’s talk,” replied Musk.
Having only recently left Comma.ai, Hotz recently announced a move to a new company developing AI chip software. It is likely therefore that he is in between projects, making the timing of the internship ideal.
Hotz seems to have already gotten to work, having tweeted “How do you feel the quality of Twitter search is? What would get you to use Twitter search instead of Google?”
How do you feel the quality of Twitter search is? What would get you to use Twitter search instead of Google?
— George Hotz ? (@realGeorgeHotz) November 21, 2022
BTW, there's some nice advanced search stuff here: https://t.co/CYMzuWD1HT
Users responded, saying that searches needed to be an exact match to work.
“It really sucks,” said user Austen Allred.
“If I’m searching for something and I’m even 1 character off I straight up don’t find what I’m looking for.”
Certain users are unsure if the hacker is capable of fixing such a large issue that others haven’t been able to do in years.
Hotz has said that this is the job he has been given by Musk, and he will try his hardest to achieve it.
“I have 12 weeks.”
On 17 November, the same day he agreed to the internship, Hotz called Twitter an intelligence agency that could be the best in the world with some work.
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