Twitter's Trust and Safety Work Could Continue

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Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. He laid off half the staff, including Joel Sutter who was one of the highest ranking employees from the old Twitter still working at the new one. Elon unveiled his first big idea for making lots of money and recouping the $44 billion he had spent to buy the company. The plan? To let anyone get a blue verified badge for their profile for $8 a month.

In a congressional hearing this week, OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, appeared to be on the same page as lawmakers: It’s time to regulate A.I. But like so many other proposals to regulate tech, will it actually happen? The Times’s technology reporter Cecilia Kang helps us understand whether Congress will actually act, and what that could look like.

Then, Casey talks with Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, before and after Elon Musk took over the company.

On today’s episode:

Cecilia Kang is a reporter at The New York Times covering technology and regulation.
Yoel Roth is the former head of trust and safety at Twitter.

Additional reading:

Sam Altman urged Congress to pass legislation to regulate A.I., including the proposal that A.I. developers should be required to get licenses from the U.S. government to release their models.
Casey Newton reported for This American Life on Roth’s time at Twitter, before and after Musk took over.