London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Jun 01, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
U.S. Goods Imports Plunge Nearly 20% Amid Tariff Disruptions
OpenAI Faces Competition from Cheaper AI Rivals
Foreign Tax Provision in U.S. Budget Bill Alarms Investors
Trump Accuses China of Violating Trade Agreement
Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Against BBC
Russia Accuses Serbia of Supplying Arms to Ukraine
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
Chinese Woman Dies After Being Forced to Visit Bank Despite Critical Illness
President Trump Grants Full Pardons to Reality TV Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
Texas Enacts App Store Accountability Act Mandating Age Verification
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Vatican Calls for Sustainable Tourism in 2025 Message
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on iPhones Amid Dispute with Apple CEO
Putin's Helicopter Reportedly Targeted by Ukrainian Drones
Liverpool Car Ramming Incident Leaves Multiple Injured
Australia Faces Immigration Debate Following Labor Party Victory
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
Macron Dismisses Viral Video of Wife's Gesture as Playful Banter
Cleveland Clinic Study Questions Effectiveness of Recent Flu Vaccine
Netanyahu Accuses Starmer of Siding with Hamas
Junior Doctors Threaten Strike Over 4% Pay Offer
×