Live data from Hacker News

xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

techcrunch.com

341–350 of 436 posts

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#341
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely wild and scary watching how much money is being spent on pushing AI down the unwilling public's throats. Nobody wants this. Yet we're hiring expensive AI researchers and developers, buying datacenters full of GPUs, and now paying "partner" companies, to deliver this thing that nobody is asking for. What in the world is going on here? What am I not understanding?

What's not to understand? Enormous amounts of money have accrued to a tiny proportion of humanity in the past 30 or so years. There is no way there wouldn't be tons of waste when spending decisions are made by so few people. Now add in the fact that these decision makers are often openly avaricious egomaniacs who don't even make symbolic efforts help the poor and vulnerable, that narrows the scope of their spending t…

> Enormous amounts of money have accrued to a tiny proportion of humanity in the past 30 or so years.

30 or so? So Reagan and Bush I somehow get a pass? It's literally still the same people and their stupid children.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#342

If this is something their users actually wanted, they'd be paying xAI, not the other way around.

That's just not true. If Telegram wanted it a small amount, and xAI wanted it a large amount, it would be normal for Telegram to negotiate to get paid for doing it.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#343
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about you but many of my messages are 1-3 emojis. Not that it matters, that is an easy thing to filter out of training data. Elon's election-buying effort was certainly assisted by the Twitter purchase. And look how few (formerly) blue checks have left the platform despite his antics.

Definitely a good investment in taking over the presidency of the United States, but I don't feel like many bluechecks are still on Twitter? The platform feels dead, you can't even access it without logging in.

I think most businesses and journalists still have their Twitter accounts? I don't know how much they use them of course.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll warn that the FBI was publicly trying to get warrants for information while they and NSA were siphoning it off in secret from the same companies. One was likely a cover for the other. Unless there's legal protections, assume in your threat model any company has let their host government, maybe others, backdoor their offerings. It might have been willingly or forced. Police states like U.S. and Russia should be a…

> I'll warn that the FBI was publicly trying to get warrants for information while they and NSA were siphoning it off in secret from the same companies. One was likely a cover for the other That’s a wildly ignorant take, but it makes for a nice conspiracy theory if you make no effort at all to understand the legalities. Different warrants authorise the collection and use of information for different purposes. FAA 702…

That's what they said before the Snowden leaks. The Snowden leaks and latter revelations showed they were lying.

For example, they use a different meaning for the Word "collect." Instead of interception and storage of data, collect means an analyst looked at it. So, they technically weren't collecting U.S. citizens' data if analysts hadn't looked at that specific data yet. Technically... based on a strange definition of collect.

They originally also said this was limited to terrorism. Later, data showed they were looking at many more crimes. They were also passing the data onto many agencies. They were told to use "parallel construction" to deceive people about how they got that data.

Finally, BULLRUN and ECI-classified level showed they were weakening U.S. security standards, but pretending to strengthen them, so they could attack U.S. systems in secret at any time. Per "Core Secrets," they were also having U.S. companies give them backdoor the FBI could "compel" them to make (somehow).

With all that, they were caught lying under oath repeatedly. They got criminal immunity for that, too. I don't believe one word they say at this point. I also assume they're doing the same things they repeatedly lied about before and for which they can't be prosecuted.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#346
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram dont have E2EE by default. It's all you need to know. 99% of communications on Telegram are in plain text. Also Telegram banned or shadowbanned serveral protest channels / bots during elections and when war began.

Many Telegram groups are only Play Store banned or banned access is restricted based on the user's phone number. This is why you must install the APK from their website directly instead of using an App Store version.

It is ridiculous that Apple decides what Telegram users can or cannot see, especially banning harmless things like nudity but allowing cruel things like war videos or propaganda.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#347

The situation just got murkier: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1927839555828220165 ("@durov @grok No deal has been signed")

For as much shit as I give Elon for Twitter and everything else, at least he's a non-stop source of entertainment.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#348

Call me stupid, but I fundamentally do not grasp why xAI would pay Telegram for access to its users. $300M seems like a crazy amount of money to put into a chat app. I am genuinely curious about the business strategy behind the move bc that would be a market worth exploring - having something that the AI industry would pay for bc they are willing to spend a lot right now.

Nothing is more valuable for an AI company than exclusive access to large amounts of human-generated data.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't know what you are talking about. Read on the multi-year attempts of Putin trying to ban Telegram and Telegram fighting back (technologically and also politically - demonstrations, etc). Telegram won the battle and Putin had no choice but to admit defeat. Similar things happened in other non-free coutries as well.

>Telegram won the battle and Putin had no choice but to admit defeat. That just seems such a unreal claim. Telegram removed features like "people nearby" after its CEO was arrested in France. Who seriously believe that the kind of threats France establishment would employ on such a person could dwarf those of Russia establishment in term of bending the braves?

You should not forget that before creating Telegram Durov was the head of VK and he left it to the government with all data, photos (including deleted ones) and messages.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#350
The $300M "in cash and xAI equity" could turn out to not be that much money, depending on what percentage of that was equity.

xAI recently raised at an $80B valuation and it's highly debatable if it's actually worth that...and who knows if you'd ever actually have a liquidation event.

Post reply on HN