Dmitri Kharitonenko

[Andrew Curran @AndrewCurran_]

VASA-1: Lifelike Audio-Driven Talking Faces Generated in Real Time from Microsoft. Start with any image, add any speech clip. That's all it takes. Reminds me of the Emote Portrait Alive paper from February. 2nd attempt at uploading some of these.

[Dmitri Kharitonenko @DKharitonenko]

@cb_doge next year's summary is going to be written by Grok :-)

[Dmitri Kharitonenko @DKharitonenko]

impressive speed of transformation

[DogeDesigner @cb_doge]

16 months of 𝕏 takeover.

- Rebranded as 𝕏.
- All time high usage and incredible growth in global total user seconds.
- Rolled out 𝕏 audio and video calling for all the 𝕏 users.
- Video views have increased 30% since last year.
- Launched Video Spaces.
- Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day.
- Launched Grok AI access in multiple countries.
- Secured Money Transmitter License in 20 states for X Payments.
- Increased the maximum length of video uploads to 4 hours.
- Started rolling out Articles feature on X.
- 𝕏 site traffic up 22.3% YoY.
- Announced the upcoming release of Grok 1.5.
- Launched Basic Verified Organization plan for $200/month
- Partnered with WWE for exclusive content.
- Partnered with BIG3 for live-streaming of games and exclusive content.
- Launched the job search portal 𝕏.com/jobs.
- Crossed 1 million active jobs that users can now apply via X Hiring.
- Video Pre-Roll Ads for creators soon.
- Launched Annual Plan for Verified Organizations.
- Launched Passkeys for iOS Users.
- Improved the live streaming quality.
- Added video quality selection option on web.
- Added "Revisit your bookmark" feautre.
- Improved X Communities, added search tags, topics.
- Added new search filters on X search.
- Added an option to create clips during X Spaces.
- Launched Creator Targeting for Advertisers.
- Added detailed analysis for media.
- Launched Ad revenue share program for the creators.
- Launched Incognito Mode in X Spaces
- Access to X Communities while logged out.
- Users can now post threads with bold & italics AND 25,000 characters on X.
- There have been 28 million+ X Spaces this year.
- Media Grid is live on Web.
- Launched Expanded Bio on X Profiles.
- Launched X Communities Worldwide.
- Announced X Payments coming next year.
- Started rolling out audio/video calling to Android users.
- Removed support for NFT Profile Pictures.
- Partnered with Shopify.
- Started paying the creators twice in a month.
- Added live chat to live streams.
- Community Notes passed 200k contributors mark.
- 𝕏 now has more than 340K Communities.
- Launched Media tab for X communities.
- Enhanced the Community Notes algorithm.
- Made headlines appear at the bottom of the thumbnails for links.
- Started rolling out accounts with multiple organization affiliates.
- Launched auto-save posts on web while composing.
- Teamed up with Consumer Technology Association.
- Added an ability to post timestamps while uploading videos.
- Enhanced the support for 𝕏 Premium users.
- Added similar posts button.
- Surpassed Instagram & Facebook in getting organic traffic from google search results.*
- Added new app icons for premium users.
- Announced that 𝕏 will completely move towards the AI driven algorithm for the feed.
- Removed the 𝕏 circles feature.
- Announced that 𝕏 Corp investors will own 25% of xAI
- Paid ~$20+ million dollars to creators.
- Creators have 10x since June.
- Launched different tiers for 𝕏 Premium
- Video views for the NBA are up +39% year over year on the platform
- Will launch the grok tab within the app.
- Announced that 𝕏 will overlay title in the upper potion of the image of a URL card in upcoming release.
- Verified Organizations to get $1K ad spend every month.
- Added bookmark button on home timeline for posts.
- Time spent on Communities increased by 300%
- ~550 million monthly active users
- ~500 million posts everyday
- ~100 billion + impressions every day
- 1.5 million sign ups everyday (up 4% from last year)
- People are spending 14% more time on X
- Ninety percent of the top 100 advertisers have returned to X
- Video views 90% up as compared to last year.
- Added more privacy options for 𝕏 calling
- Announced the upcoming "grok analysis" button under posts on 𝕏
- Introduced recruitment / jobs feature for verified organizations.
- Expanded the community notes in more countries worldwide.
- Posts in the highlights section of profile to get higher reach.
- Announced that full open source algorithm will go live soon.
- Reached a new all-time high of user-seconds.
- Improved ad experience
- Increased group chat size to 200 people.
- Launched 𝕏 Pro
- Announced the retirement of Circles feature.
- Lowered the eligibility threshold for ads revenue sharing from 15M to 5M
- Rolling out vertical video ads for brands.
- Rolled in pic-in-pic feature for videos on web.
- Improved communities experience
- Announced the removal of tweepcred system.
- Added live streams on the top bar of the feed.
- Improved live streaming & tested game streaming.
- Launched the immersive video player.
- Made the process of reporting a post easier.
- Launched job cards under recruitment feature for verified business organizations.
- Improved the UI by removing headings from the links
- Announced the ability of group calling on 𝕏
- Renamed 𝕏 Blue to 𝕏 Premium
- Announced the removal of block feature except for DMs.
- Major upgrades to videos and media.
- Announced that the company is close to break-even financially.
- Secured money transmission license in multiple states for 𝕏 payments.
- Introduced video downloads for verified users.
- Testing not a bot program in New Zealand and the Philippines to fight bots
- Added an ability to limit replies to verified users only
- Launched expanded bios on the web
- Made communities accessible in more countries
- Added ID verification on web.
- Added an ability to hide likes.
- Added a tab for verified followers on user profiles.
- Added an ability to accept dms from verified users only to prevent spam.
- Introduced dm support for the ad customers.
- Announced that 𝕏 will fund legal representation for users fired from their jobs for their 𝕏 activity.
- Included posts from communities in for you feed.
- Renamed notes feature to articles that will have no character limits.
- Added highlights tab to the profiles.
- Improved account analytics.
- Linda Yaccarino joined as new CEO.
- Elon Musk to continue working on product design & new technology.
- Launched early version of encrypted dms.
- Added an ability for community admins to spotlight their community in the profile.
- Reduced child sexual abuse material by around 95% since the acquisition.
- Introduced voice dms & tweets.
- Introduced highlights tab on profiles.
- 90% of the bot accounts are now deleted.
- Introduced an ability to upload long videos.
- Improved advertisement & brand safety.
- Updated the auto-reply to their press email to "we will get back to you soon"
- Introduced formatting for long form posts.
- Extended the community notes availability to more countries.
- Introduced individual reply to dms & custom emoji reactions.
- Started recruiting.
- Launched faster playback & mini player for videos.
- Added an ability to allow dms from subs only.
- Continued Ux/Ui improvements.
- Added list search feature to web.
- Reached 550 million+ total active users.
- Released subscriptions for creators.
- Open sourced the code for recommended tweets.
- Removed legacy checkmarks.
- Prioritized the verified accounts to fight spam & bots.
- Added air play button for videos on iOS
- Incorporated as X corp.
- Added an ability to fast forward/rewind videos on 𝕏.
- Became the most downloaded & #1 news app in multiple countries.
- Improved ad relevance.
- All time low hate speech levels.
- Removed child porn.
- Introduced rate limits to prevent data scraping.
- Added fast forward/ backward feature to videos.
- Launched subscriber only replies.
- Launched spaces on web.
- Added an ability to hide the blue checkmark.
- Reduced scam accounts.
- Most of top 100 advertisers have now returned to spending on ads.
- Released new features in the shortest time period in X's history.
- Improved engagements for advertisers.
- Exposed truth via Twitter files.
- Removed censorship.
- Restored free speech.
- Launched long form tweets.
- Introduced Multiple organization affiliate badges.
- Announced the discontinuity of Twitter circles feature.
- Improved post analytics.
- Community notes debunking propaganda & misstatements.
- Introduced verified badges for organizations.
- Announced that X will be establishing a "Trust and Safety center" in Austin, TX, dedicated to content moderation.
- Announced that X will build a $700 Million AI Data Center.
- Grok Analysis button to summarize posts coming soon.
- Native translations coming soon
- Announced that 𝕏 algorithm will prioritize showing pinned post to the followers.
- Tipping, Payments, ability to edit video clips within the app, new features for live streams, feature to gift X premium subscription, X video app for Smart TVs, Account status (ability to check if a user is shadow-banned and a reason for the same), Translation feature for videos, ability to rewind the live spaces, ability to sort posts and comments, semantic A.I. Search, ability to change price of subscriptions, live streaming via PS5/XBOX, Removal of Interaction counts from main timeline, Improvements in Grok, Improvements in Media Tab coming soon.

Thank you everyone in the team @X, @lindayaX and @elonmusk

[Dmitri Kharitonenko @DKharitonenko]

100 Years Ago, IBM Was Born https://t.co/9pQLogUfB3

[Dmitri Kharitonenko @DKharitonenko]

Smart

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

If you put a mirror half a light year away from earth and you looked at it through a telescope you could see a year into the earth's past.

[Dmitri Kharitonenko @DKharitonenko]

Just bookmarking for reading this year - all impressive titles

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI and one of the leading figures of the AI boom.

He has recommended several books over the years which cover a wide range of topics including entrepreneurship, technology, psychology, history, and philosophy.

25 books recommended by @sama 🧵

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

Lessons Steve Jobs wanted to pass on.

Written right before he died.

In his own words:

1. ON BUILDING A REAL COMPANY:

I hate it when people call themselves “entrepreneurs” when what they’re really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on.

They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business.

That’s how you really make a contribution and add to the legacy of those who went before.

You build a company that will still stand for something a generation or two from now.

That’s what Walt Disney did, and Hewlett and Packard, and the people who built Intel.

They created a company to last, not just to make money.

That’s what I want Apple to be.

2. ON TASTE OVER MARKET RESEARCH:

Some people say, “Give the customers what they want.” But that’s not my approach.

Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.

Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!'"

People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

That’s why I never rely on market research.

Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.

3. ON COMBINING IDEAS FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS:

Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science.

I like that intersection.

There’s something magical about that place.

There are a lot of people innovating, and that’s not the main distinction of my career.

The reason Apple resonates with people is that there’s a deep current of humanity in our innovation.

I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a desire to express themselves.

In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side.

In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity.

Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science.

Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor.

4. ON KNOWING WHY YOUR CUSTOMERS PAY YOU:

People pay us to integrate things for them, because they don’t have the time to think about this stuff 24/7.

If you have an extreme passion for producing great products, it pushes you to be integrated, to connect your hardware and your software and content management.

You want to break new ground, so you have to do it yourself.

5. ON WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SHIFT THE FOCUS FROM GREAT PRODUCTS TO MORE SALES:

I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft.

The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important.

The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers.

So the salespeople end up running the company.

John Akers at IBM was a smart, eloquent, fantastic salesperson, but he didn’t know anything about product.

The same thing happened at Xerox.

When the sales guys run the company, the product guys don’t matter so much, and a lot of them just turn off.

6. ON GREAT PRODUCTS BEING THE FOUNDATION OF AN ENDURING COMPANY:

My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products.

Everything else was secondary.

Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products.

But the products, not the profits, were the motivation.

Sculley flipped these priorities to where the goal was to make money.

It’s a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything: the people you hire, who gets promoted, what you discuss in meetings.

7. ON BEING HONEST AND DIRECT WITH YOUR TEAM:

I don’t think I run roughshod over people, but if something sucks, I tell people to their face.

It’s my job to be honest.

I know what I’m talking about, and I usually turn out to be right.

That’s the culture I tried to create.

We are brutally honest with each other, and anyone can tell me they think I am full of shit and I can tell them the same.

And we’ve had some rip-roaring arguments, where we are yelling at each other, and it’s some of the best times I’ve ever had.

I feel totally comfortable saying “Ron, that store looks like shit” in front of everyone else.

Or I might say “God, we really fucked up the engineering on this” in front of the person that’s responsible.

That’s the ante for being in the room: You’ve got to be able to be super honest.

8. ON KEEPING THE TEAM EXCELLENT

I was hard on people sometimes, probably harder than I needed to be.

I remember the time when Reed (his son) was six years old, coming home, and I had just fired somebody that day, and I imagined what it was like for that person to tell his family and his young son that he had lost his job.

It was hard.

But somebody’s got to do it.

I figured that it was always my job to make sure that the team was excellent, and if I didn’t do it, nobody was going to do it.

9. ON TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE GREAT WORK THAT WAS CREATED BEFORE YOU:

What drove me?

I think most creative people want to express appreciation for being able to take advantage of the work that’s been done by others before us.

I didn’t invent the language or mathematics I use.

I make little of my own food, none of my own clothes.

Everything I do depends on other members of our species and the shoulders that we stand on.

And a lot of us want to contribute something back to our species and to add something to the flow.

It’s about trying to express something in the only way that most of us know how.

We try to use the talents we do have to express our deep feelings, to show our appreciation of all the contributions that came before us, and to add something to that flow.

That’s what has driven me.

10. ON CONSTANT REFINEMENT AND PERPETUAL MOTION:

You always have to keep pushing to innovate.

Dylan could have sung protest songs forever and probably made a lot of money, but he didn’t.

He had to move on, and when he did, by going electric in 1965, he alienated a lot of people.

His 1966 Europe tour was his greatest. He would come on and do a set of acoustic guitar, and the audiences loved him.

Then he brought out what became The Band, and they would all do an electric set, and the audience sometimes booed.

There was one point where he was about to sing “Like a Rolling Stone” and someone from the audience yells “Judas!”

And Dylan then says, “Play it fucking loud!”

And they did. The Beatles were the same way.

They kept evolving, moving, refining their art.

That’s what I’ve always tried to do—keep moving. Otherwise, as Dylan says, if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.

[Kevin Dahlstrom @Camp4]

“I’m never late. I’m never frenzied.

If you’re frenzied, it’s YOU.”

In my 30 years in business I've worked directly with hundreds of entrepreneurs & C-level execs, several self-made billionaires, and even a few icons.

What I observed—which may seem counterintuitive to some—is:

👉The most effective people aren't "busy".

They have plenty of time for all the important things. They don't rush from one thing to the next.

It's not because they have less complicated lives than the rest of us. It's exactly the opposite—*because* they have massive demands on their time, they’re RUTHLESS about these 5 things (they're all simple, but not easy):

1) Focus on a few important things
2) Say no to unimportant things
3) Set boundaries (and don’t compromise them)
4) Measure output, not input (results, not effort)
5) Recognize the importance of free time

Just listen to Jeff Bezos in his prime (pun intended):

"I get up early, I go to bed early, and I like to putter in the morning. My puttering time is very important to me—that's why I set my first meeting for 10am."

If you feel busy and frantic, the problem and the solution are found in the same place—the mirror. 🫵

(h/t @amandaorson for the inspo — she’s a good follow!)

[Abbott World Marathon Majors @WMMajors]

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas from everyone here at Abbott World Marathon Majors.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

How big is Africa, in reality.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Preparing for launch on Saturday

[IBM News @IBMNews]

Focused on accelerating #genAI technology and research for the enterprise, IBM announced the launch of a $500M venture fund to invest in #AI companies. Learn more: https://t.co/RqXLLvfOq0

[IBM @IBM]

Will the world rely on a single #GenAI model? Don’t count on it.

In this AI Academy episode, IBM Director of Research Darío Gil explores different approaches to #AI and how businesses can go from AI users to value creators. Watch it here: https://t.co/WgS3WubYHL

[IBM Security @IBMSecurity]

IBM Security Guardium further extends its leadership in securing #hybridcloud data with Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) capabilities.

🔎 Identify and catalog shadow data
📈 Understand cloud data flow
🔒 Uncover vulnerabilities in data

Learn more: https://t.co/T6xNCZSCzI

[Ana Paula Assis @Ana_P_Assis]

Fascinating how #GenerativeAI is transforming investigative journalism 📰- This is how Norwegian newspaper @iTromso is using it to empower reporters to find better, more accurate news stories.

[IBM News @IBMNews]

IBM is proud to join @POTUS at the White House today to sign an Executive Order acknowledging the tremendous opportunity of #AI and our shared commitment to harness it responsibly. Read the full statement from IBM Chairman and CEO, @arvindkrishna, here: https://t.co/aSfM0rzlPE

[IBM News @IBMNews]

Today we are announcing watsonx Code Assistant, a generative #AI-powered assistant that currently delivers on two specific use cases: IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed and IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z: https://t.co/DgUXdh9kl5

[IBM Security @IBMSecurity]

AI plays a big role in #cybersecurity, but is its impact positive or negative? 🤔

IBM Security expert Jeff Crume says the answer is “both" and explains how #AI can be used for defense and exploited by hackers. Watch the full video here: https://t.co/sCQdTuqg4j

[IBM News @IBMNews]

$IBM has announced 3Q 2023 earnings. Details are available here: https://t.co/7yU1WoOZd$IBM has announced 3Q 2023 earnings. Details are available here: https://t.co/7yU1WoOZdK

[Dmitri Kharitonenko @DKharitonenko]

https://t.co/tcsXKsKLnk