To address the bot issue and allow posting on the social network, Elon Musk intends to charge new X members a nominal fee.
Musk confirmed the plans to charge new users on the platform a fee in a post on X
Replying to an X account that posted about the X policy on new accounts, Musk said:
“Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. Current AI (and troll farms) can pass “Are you a bot” with ease.”
Musk stated that the “only way” to halt the “onslaught of bots” was to charge new accounts a tiny price in response to an X account that posted about changes on X’s website.
As with many statements regarding the social media network, no information is currently available regarding the exact date on which this policy will take effect or the potential costs that new members may incur.
In the Philippines and New Zealand, X began charging newly verified users $1 annually in October of last year. While they could view the posts, new free users from these locations who signed up for the platform were unable to interact with them.
They had to pay a fee to post material, like, repost, comment, bookmark, and quote postings. Musk may impose a charge akin to those in other areas.
Musk has discussed fighting AI bots, but last year, X revised its guidelines to add a disclaimer that stated that messages made in public could be used to train AI models or machine learning algorithms.
Separately, Musk stated in July 2023 that he would train models with public posts through his AI startup, xAI.
Earlier this month, we reported that X Premium subscribers who pay $8 a month could now access xAI’s Grok chatbot. Previously, consumers who paid $16 a month for the Premium+ tier could access the chatbot.
