Why did Elon musk purchase Twitter ?

[SteveX]

I don’t like the guy, I loosely follow what he says, and does, as I do a lot of public people. He comes off as awkward, abrasive, and sometimes downright disgustingly offensive, but he’s not stupid, he does not sit behind a desk, waiting for things to happen, he is deeply involved in all aspects of his companies.
Which is why the purchase of Twitter no matter how much it cost looks “stupid“ from the outside. And may be from an immediate financial position, it is a stupid purchase.
I believe there must be more to it, something we are not seeing, this company does not even fit in with the rest of his companies, until you look closer.
Elon Musk, who was among the original members of OpenAI, sat on the board, and left OpenAI with public criticism of how they were handling it. OpenAI since Elon has left, has released chatgpt, and is now getting buried in lawsuits for copyright infringement for letting it snoop around the Internet to gather text data so we can operate better.
It’s pretty clear in order to create these large language model AI‘s, they need to be exposed to an immense amount of text data. I don’t mean to compare real life to the movies, but if you have seen ex machina, the super genius in that movie created his AI in the same manner. He also purchased the company to supply immense amount of text data to his AI systems.
Since Elon musk has purchased Twitter, he has create a new company, guess which field it is in…
The new company is called xAI, and includes several engineers that have worked at companies like OpenAI and Google.
Mr Musk has previously stated he believes developments in AI should be paused and that the sector needs regulation.
He said the start-up was created to "understand reality".
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66183034.amp
https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-devastated-after-elon-musk-left-chatgpt-openai-report-2023-8?amp

If this theory is correct, and it pays off for him, $40 billion could be seen as a small down payment on a much larger investment.

[edhopper]

1. Interesting theory

Could be, I guess we will see.

Or it could be he's a rich, narcissistic asshole who thinks he should control the national discussion.

[Frasier Balzov]

2. Actually, he wanted a peer-to-peer payment platform.

He envisioned X as far back as his work on PayPal.

In my opinion, he bought the wrong vehicle to accommodate this.

He should have bought Western Union instead of Twitter.

[SteveX]

3. It would seem extremely strange

If he didn’t give his AI access to the Twitter platform.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Or rather... why did the Saudis buy Twitter?

They may have gotten a bargain to quell dissent.

[SteveX]

6. Can you expand?

How does that play out?

[XRubicon]

12. For the DMs nt

[dutch777]

5. Ego

[brooklynite]

7. Why does there have to be a deep meaning to his purchase?

He has billions in his couch cushions, and can indulge his personal "free speech" whims.

[SteveX]

8. I guess that's an option.

Like somebody posted upthread, just for ego.

It just seems strange to spend 40 billion on a company just so you could thump your chest a little bit.
Also, implying that he wouldn’t allow his AI to use the massive data set that Twitter is just seems very suspect to me.
If I had to guess, I would say the data set of Twitter is already being fed into his AI so that it can learn.

I guess I’m just looking for some meaning behind this event, I certainly don’t buy into the people who call him stupid, cause they would never call themselves stupid, and now they’re implying they’re smarter than Elon Musk.
I just don’t go down that path, he may be a lot of things, but he’s not stupid.

[brooklynite]

9. Years ago, Donald Trump bought the Plaza Hotel.

Then he sold it for a loss. He didn’t have a strategy for what he’d do for it. He simply wanted to own it because it represented NY wealth and class.

[leftstreet]

10. Because the stockholders forced him to

He tried to get out of his impulsive decision, but they threatened to sue him. lol

[TSExile]

11. I have no idea.

All I know is that I don't trust him. I think, in his way, he's as evil as T****.