Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Saturday, Jul 05, 2025

Elon Musk has asked the first ever iPhone 'hacker' and tech experts to fix Twitter

Elon Musk has asked the first ever iPhone 'hacker' and tech experts to fix Twitter

The Twitter chief this week hired coder and entrepreneur George Hotz to overhaul Twitter’s search engine, part of a wide-ranging effort by Musk to fix Twitter.
The job came about on Twitter: the billionaire responded to a Tweet from Hotz saying he would be “down for a 12 week internship at Twitter” to offer him a position.

“Today, I'm a Tweep!,” Hotz subsequently posted, using Twitter's internal nickname for its staff. “The internet feels full of possibility again.”

Hotz may be little known outside of the tech world but he is well established within it. He has founded several companies and has tens of thousands of followers on Twitter, Instagram, and code sharing platform GitHub.

The software engineer began his career in his teens as a security hacker, exposing weaknesses in software by breaking into them.

He rose to prominence aged 17 after becoming the first person in the world to hack an iPhone. “Geohot”, as the coder styles himself, repeated the same trick with Sony’s PlayStation a few years later.

He soon moved onto the world of artificial intelligence and founded car automation startup Comma.AI while still in his mid-20s. A lengthy Bloomberg profile on Hotz and his project from 2015 said he was “taking on Google and Tesla by himself.”

It was around this period that Hotz first met Elon Musk after being introduced by a mutual friend. The billionaire was impressed by the curly-haired coder’s knowledge of artificial intelligence technology in vehicle automation, which is to this day still a cutting-edge field. Musk offered him a job at Tesla.

“I appreciate the offer, but like I said, I’m not looking for a job,” Hotz recalled responding.

This time though, he hasn’t turned down the opportunity. Hotz is now in charge of improving search on Twitter. He has three months to make his mark on a very visible feature used by most, if not all, of Twitter’s 229m daily users.

Hires like Hotz signal Musk’s thinking on what the future of Twitter might look like. Not only does the new owner want coders with top-end technical skills, he wants people who don't have the strong left-wing bias he perceived among Silicon Valley’s old guard.

A post on Hotz's personal blog earlier this year suggests libertarian leanings: “The problem with the state is that it is bad, not that the wrong people are in it. If everyone renounced their desire for power over others tomorrow, I’d have no worries about the future.”

“If you cannot renounce this desire, f— off. You are the problem,” he adds.

While musing about the role of belief systems in society on his blog, George Hotz took shot at left-wing US institutions, writing: “So the obvious solution seems like the construction of a better church, to compete with Harvard and the New York Times, perhaps one more oriented toward truth and less toward ‘status’.”

Entries on Hotz's blog display a clear intellectual curiosity, covering topics ranging from the theory of money creation to an analysis of the terrorist manifesto of the Unabomber.

“I can’t bring myself to accept his conclusion that technology is bad and our only hope is to destroy it,” Hotz says in his piece on US mail bomber Ted Kaczynski. “Then I would forfeit any hope of being able to know everything.”

In a nod to the techno-libertarianism that abounds in certain Silicon Valley circles, Hotz also suggests replacing government with benevolent machines, saying: “The idea is to replace the useful functions of the state with locally controlled and owned machines… If your stuff is cheaper and better, people just won’t use the state anymore.”

Hotz is not only a coder but a prototype for Twitter staffers of the future: deeply knowledgeable about his topic and questioning of the status quo.

Expanding on his personal philosophy, Hotz echoes Musk’s planned human mission to Mars, saying: “Tomorrow, if I had a strong superhuman AI, I would have it build me a spaceship and get out of here as close to the speed of light as I can.”

Hotz has already thrown himself into the job at Twitter, canvassing his 93,000 followers on the site to ask for their opinions on how to improve search, as well as expressing his own bugbears about the service.

“Trying to get rid of that non dismissable login pop up after you scroll a little bit ugh these things ruin the Internet,” he tweeted. “If I just get rid of the pop up I still consider my internship a win.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Germany Seeks Taliban Deal to Deport Afghan Migrants
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Qatar Airways Clears Backlog of Passengers Following Missile Threats
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
G7 Leaders Fail to Reach Consensus on Key Global Issues
Mass exodus in Tehran as millions try to flee following Trump’s evacuation order
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
Energy Infrastructure Becomes War Zone in Middle East
Iran Conducts Ballistic Missile Launches Amid Heightened Tensions with Israel
Iran Signals Openness to Nuclear Negotiations Amid Ongoing Regional Tensions
Shock Within Iran’s Leadership: Khamenei’s Failed Plan to Launch 1,000 Missiles Against Israel
UK Deploys Jets to Middle East Amid Rising Tensions
Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi Urges Overthrow of Khamenei Regime
Wreck of $17 Billion San José Galleon Identified Off Colombia After 300 Years
Iran Launches Extensive Missile Attack on Israel Following Israeli Strikes on Nuclear Sites
Israel Issues Ultimatum to Iran Over Potential Retaliation and Nuclear Facilities
×