Elon Musk Publicly Posts Twitter’s “For You” Recommendation Algorithm
Source code from the platform was leaked earlier this week.
Following parts of its source code being leaked online, Twitter has now posted the code for the algorithm it uses to recommend users’ tweets on GitHub.
“Our initial release of the so-called algorithm is going to be quite embarrassing, and people are going to find a lot of mistakes, but we’re going to fix them very quickly,” CEO Elon Musk said in a Twitter Spaces. “Even if you don’t agree with something, at least you’ll know why it’s there, and that you’re not being secretly manipulated…”
Musk went on to note that users will likely be able to locate mistakes in the code, pointing out how often the Twitter “community identifies and fixes those exploits.” As users find mistakes, Musk says, the team at Twitter will step in to make any necessary changes to the code.
The code notably only shows how and why certain content is shown to users on their “For You” page, but not on other parts of the app.
Despite mistakes in the code, which have already been spotted by some users, many are pointing out other interesting aspects. For instance, one section of the algorithm notes if Elon Musk is the author of the tweet, according to Engadget, possibly explaining why he’s so prevalent in recommendations.
In other tech news, hardware startup Electronic Materials Office showed off its debut product, an industrial low-profile keyboard.
