Who is Lex Fridman? MIT research scientist offers to run Twitter for free, Elon Musk warns of ‘bankruptcy’

MIT research scientist Lex Fridman suggested Elon Musk hand him over control of Twitter. (Instagram/lexfridman, Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIME)
ADVERTISEMENT

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: An MIT research scientist has offered Elon Musk to pass on the control of Twitter to him with no salary expectations and purely to "turn it around." The Twitter CEO responded and claimed that the microblogging platform has been "in the fast lane to bankruptcy" and asked the man to reconsider his wants. Ever since Musk's takeover, Twitter has been the epicenter of all sorts of discussions. 

ADVERTISEMENT

The questionable offer was made by Lex Fridman who tweeted on Sunday, December 18, "Fun suggestion @elonmusk: Let me run Twitter for a bit. No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world. Just offering my help in the unlikely case it's useful." To Fridman's surprise, the billionaire tech mogul replied, "You must like pain a lot. One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?" The CEO has established that the company he paid $44 billion for is heading toward bankruptcy. Fridman responded, "Yes. We'll turn it around."

ADVERTISEMENT

READ MORE

'He is having toddler meltdown’: Internet reacts as Elon Musk suspends journos and Mastodon Twitter accounts

'My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci': Elon Musk in troll mode as Internet calls for doc's investigation

In the past week, Musk has been criticized for changes in policies. In light of the same, Musk engaged the audience in a voting oll tweeting, "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll." He further wrote, "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it." As far as Fridman's offer is considered, it's possible that it might not happen. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Who is Lex Fridman?

Born in Chkalovsk, at the time in Soviet Russia, Fridman is a Russian-American computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, and podcaster. He also runs a YouTube channel in his name that has over 2.40 million subscribers and 330 million views. He began his podcast with the same name as his 2018 MIT course 6.S099 on artificial general intelligence. He later changed it to his own name. Fridman uses the platform to discuss AI, science, technology, history, philosophy, and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power., and has also interviewed Kanye West. As per his website, he likes playing guitar and piano, and practicing jiu Jitsu & judo. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Fridman has now approached Musk to hand over control to him so that he can switch things up. While Musk has poured all his attention toward the social media aap, things are growing restless back ta the Tesla headquarters. Third largest individual shareholder of Tesla, KoGuan Leo previously tweeted asking for a new CEO and said, "Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO Tesla needs and deserves to have working full time CEO What Tesla BOD should do, do nothing? Elon will find his own successor under BOD independent supervision". With Musk possibly depending on the result a voting poll, Fridman has extended his hand out.

ADVERTISEMENT


READ NEXT