Musk calls X algorithm 'dumb' and will open-source For You recommendation code

Businessinsider reports Elon Musk said X's recommendation algorithm is 'dumb' and 'needs massive improvements' as the company said it will publish the underlying code for the app's 'For You' feed on GitHub every four weeks, with explainers for each change.

X's engineering team said the revamped recommendation system is built on the same architecture as Grok, Musk's xAI chatbot, signaling a move toward more AI-driven ranking beyond the rules-based, engagement-heavy methods the app has used. The team pledged to post code changes and explanations on GitHub every four weeks; X has not said whether the systems share training data or model weights. The platform previously showed posts in reverse chronological order from 2006 through 2015, switched in 2016 to a 'Show me the best tweets first' default, and gradually incorporated engagement signals such as likes, replies, shares, and blocks to predict content users would interact with or remove.

Key questions remain about how the new system will operate in practice, and X did not immediately respond to requests for more specifics. Musk has long criticized the algorithm as a 'black box' and argued it introduced political bias before and after his 2022 purchase of the company, and he has highlighted issues such as misinterpreting forwarded posts as endorsement.

Key Topics

Tech, Elon Musk, X, Github, Grok, Xai