Hacker George Hotz (George Hotz), who once became famous for the release of the iPhone jailbreak and hacking the Sony PlayStation 3 game console, got a job on Twitter. The new head of the social network, Elon Musk, accepted him for a 12-week “trial period”.
Image Source: Michael Zelenko / The Verge
Hotz was given two main tasks as part of his probationary period: to fix problems with the Twitter search engine, and to remove the authorization pop-up window that prevents using social network search without logging in to a user account.
Hotz himself expressed his desire to work at Twitter following Elon Musk carried out a wide-ranging purge of the social network, reducing the staff from 7,500 to regarding 2,750 people. Those who were not ready for “long hours of daily intensive work” and generally did not agree with the new management policy were laid off. Several hundred people decided to leave the company themselves, without waiting for a “call on the carpet.” According to Hotz, “this attitude to work allows you to create amazing things”, which is why he expressed a desire to work on Twitter, which he announced through his page on the social network. Musk replied to this: “Let’s talk”.
Musk and Hotz have collaborated in the past, but they haven’t reached direct collaboration. In 2015, Western media wrote that Hotz discussed the possibility of his work at Tesla on projects related to autonomous driving technologies. However, the hacker changed his plans following Musk began to change the terms of the agreement between the parties. As a result, Hotz refused the offer, publicly stating that “He wasn’t really looking for a job”and promised to contact Musk once more, “when Mobileye hacks”. Tesla was partnering with Mobileye at the time. The latter supplied some of the technology for it that Tesla used in its autopilot system. The companies ceased cooperation in 2016.
All this time, Hotz was engaged in the company he created Comma.ai, which led the development of autonomous driving systems. Unlike Tesla electric vehicles, which are equipped with autopilot from the factory, Comma.ai offers driver assistance kits for installation in existing car models. The company launched a $1,999 development kit. According to Comma.ai, their system is compatible with more than 200 different car models.
Hotz left Comma.ai last month, saying the company needed a new CEO to take it out of startup status and into a true user-centric commercial business. However, he soon announced the opening of a new company, which this time will develop software for AI chips.
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