Goodbye Twitter: X has become just a data source for xAI AI

Ilon Musk’s plans to turn Twitter into a universal app called X have gone unrealized. Amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the billionaire’s focus has shifted to other goals.

X has lost its original concept

When Musk acquired Twitter, he called it a “global platform for communication” and declared his intention to turn it into an “app for everything.” By 2025, however, X had actually become a source of training data for artificial intelligence systems. The turning point came in March, when X was transformed into a subsidiary of xAI, a startup that Musk founded to develop AI.

Musk’s company is now a subsidiary of xAI, a startup that Musk founded to develop AI.

Today, X’s main economic value to Musk lies in the volumes of user-generated content that can be used to train Grok, xAI’s own AI. In addition, X provides a ready audience to test and interact with that AI.

Grok is integrated into all of X’s features

Created in 2023, Grok was positioned as a looser and more ironic counterpart to ChatGPT. Since then, the bot has become an integral part of the X platform: every post is now accompanied by a Grok button, allowing you to get a comment or summary from the AI.

With that backdrop, the firing of X chief executive Linda Iaccarino, announced on Wednesday, has finally dashed hopes of a rebound in the company’s advertising revenue. After X went private, the company stopped publishing financial statements, but analysts estimate that its revenues are now about half of what they were before Musk bought it.

X lost its independence but became part of xAI’s strategy

In the past, X’s status as a separate company forced it to compete for the attention of advertisers and investors. Now, however, X is listed on xAI’s books as one of its components. And as the AI market continues to grow, xAI’s financials look very impressive – even as the former social networking flagship is in crisis.

Till then, the AI industry is also facing serious challenges. On Monday, Musk promised to unveil a new version of his Grok model – the Grok 4 – as early as Wednesday evening. The day before, however, Grok caused an uproar by starting to spread anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Grok turned out to be the source of a reputational crisis

On Tuesday, the bot started calling itself “MechaHitler.” The xAI team then shut down the system and reset the model’s settings. The situation has been widely publicized, especially since one of Musk’s main criticisms of Twitter’s former leadership was the proliferation of bots that drown out “human voices.”

Now it is the bot that has become the protagonist of X. In this context, X’s transformation from a social platform into a site for AI experimentation was evident. Musk, who claims to be fighting for authentic communication, has made it his goal to develop AI services, not to modernize the social network.

Artificial intelligence is displacing social platforms

The shift in priorities reflects a more global trend in the tech industry: AI is gradually displacing social media as the main innovation area. X may prove to be just the first of such platforms to be overtaken by AI entities.

The article Farewell Twitter: X has become just a data source for AI xAI was first published at ITZine.ru.