Elon Musk open sources Twitter algorithms

This is a pretty big development!

• Twitter releases its recommendation algorithm code on GitHub and explains its decision in a blog post.
• The algorithm has three main stages: gathering tweets, ranking them using machine learning, and filtering out unwanted content.
• Twitter aims for a balance of 50% in-network and 50% out-of-network tweets on the For You timeline.
• Elon Musk polled his followers in March 2022 about open sourcing Twitter's algorithm, with 83% responding "yes."
• Musk hopes the algorithm will be transparent and robust, allowing third parties to understand what is shown to users.
• Code transparency and open source are different, and Twitter will need to establish governance systems for managing community contributions.
• Twitter invites the community to submit issues and pull requests for algorithm improvements on GitHub.
• The decision to increase transparency comes amid criticism about Twitter's moderation and recommendation practices.
• Twitter faces potential competition from open-source projects like Mastodon and Bluesky.

 

[AugieTN]

I don't consider myself a dummy, but what does that mean Rob?

 

[Hadron]

"Using machine learning" is where the transparency will go away. If you don't have access to the weighting factors or the training sample (which will be basically "twitter") then you won't be able to reproduce the results, and it may not be easy to extract anything specific.

Hopefully someone will be able to work some general principles out, but I won't be surprised if it tells us less than we hope.

 

[Harro5]

Elon Musk is really having fun, I don't know if it's to compensate for the 44 billion dollars spent on Twitter.

 

[Shadea]

He'll never reveal anything important... Because he would lose money...

 

[ocnbrze]

The release by Twitter of its algorithm for recommendation in GitHub is a significant step toward transparency and transparency. The move, backed by Elon Musk and the community will address issues and solicit improvements from other organizations.

improvements? name an improvement that he has done to twitter so far? twitter has lost millions so far.....shoot it might be in the billions, since he took over.

 

[DeveloperHeat]

This is highly interesting.

 

[ocnbrze]

This is highly interesting.

what is interesting? can you be more specific?

 

[mikedt]

So can Elon Musk remove my ban from his Twitter?

I did today try make another account on Twitter, but it objected to my +86 (China) phone number verification. and Twitter insisted me registering with a +1 (USA) phone number, which I don't have.... FAIL!!