Elon Musk's X Interview with Trump Marred by Technical Difficulties
Elon Musk's highly anticipated interview with former President Donald Trump on X's Spaces platform faced significant technical hurdles on Monday night, delaying the start by 42 minutes and raising questions about the platform's reliability.
 |
|---|
| Elon Musk and Donald Trump during their Landmark Interview on X |
Delayed Start and Technical Glitches
The interview, scheduled to begin at 8 PM ET, crashed immediately upon launch. Users who managed to access the Space were greeted with lo-fi techno music playing from Trump's account for approximately 30 minutes, followed by silence.
Disputed DDoS Attack Claims
Eighteen minutes after the scheduled start time, Musk claimed that X was the target of a massive DDOS attack, preventing the Space from proceeding as planned. However, this claim has been disputed:
- The rest of the X platform appeared to be functioning normally
- A source at X confirmed to The Verge that there was no actual denial-of-service attack
- Another X employee stated there was a 99 percent chance Musk was lying about the attack
Conflicting Information
Musk provided conflicting information about the event:
- He claimed X had tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier that day
- When the interview finally began around 8:40 PM ET, X reported 915,000 listeners
- By 9:40 PM, the listener count had increased to 1.3 million
Historical Context
This incident is reminiscent of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' 2023 presidential campaign announcement on X, which also experienced technical difficulties. At that time, Musk attributed the problems to overloaded servers.
Implications for X's Reliability
The technical issues and disputed claims raise questions about X's infrastructure and its ability to handle high-profile events. This comes in the wake of significant staff reductions at the company, including engineers responsible for maintaining the platform's stability.
As X continues to position itself as a platform for major political discussions and events, the reliability of its infrastructure will likely remain under scrutiny.
Update: Wednesday August 14 16:57
In a separate development, Elon Musk's AI company xAI has released Grok-2, an upgraded version of its chatbot with advanced text capabilities and controversial image generation features. Available to X Premium and Premium+ subscribers, Grok-2 can create images directly on the platform without apparent restrictions on content, raising concerns about potential misuse for spreading misinformation. The lack of built-in systems to flag AI-generated images could complicate efforts to combat false information, especially as the US presidential election approaches. This release may attract regulatory scrutiny, with X already under investigation by Ireland's Data Protection Commission regarding the use of European users' data for training the new Grok models.
 |
|---|
| Elon Musk’s new AI model Grok-2 signifies the technological direction discussed in the interview |