Elon Musk Makes A part of X Algorithm Open Supply, Says It ‘Sucks’

[Sketchiest Guy in the World Voice] Hey child, wanna see the X algorithm? It’s proper over here. 

No actually, Elon Musk seems to be partly making good on his promise a few week in the past to open up the X suggestions algorithm for public perusal and enter, theoretically making the primary feed on his social media platform open supply. He beforehand promised he would do that again in 2022, and kind of did by publishing one snapshot of the code shortly afterward, however that repository wasn’t saved sufficiently updated to make the X platform qualify as most individuals’s thought of an open supply product.

This launch, then, is a promising step within the route of X really being an open supply product. The following step can be to replace this code repository in 4 weeks, as Musk promised he would do.

Even then, this launch wouldn’t imply the open sourcing of X might be marked “promise saved.” In his January 10 X publish promising this launch, Musk mentioned he would launch “all code used to find out what natural and promoting posts are advisable to customers.” From the place I’m sitting, that has nonetheless not even come near taking place.

That’s as a result of on November 26 of final 12 months, the accounts for Musk and Grok posted that Grok is used to type the posts on everybody’s Following feed by default, though it may be toggled from “in style” to “current” to make it chronological. That algorithm seems to be lacking. The Following and For You feeds on X even have advertisements, which Musk has indicated are served by way of an algorithm that he mentioned he would make public. So by my depend there needs to be no less than two extra releases, presumably extra. 

Gizmodo reached out to X for details about whether or not or not the promoting and Following feed code has already been launched, or if will probably be launched in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later. We are going to replace if we hear again. 

However anyway, right here we’re with a contemporary dump of code. The very first thing it’s best to know is that it “sucks,” based on Musk. 

Sure, the algorithm sucks

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 20, 2026

Earlier on the identical day Musk mentioned the algorithm sucked, X head of product Nikita Bier seemed to indicate that he was proud of it, noting that within the six months from July of 2025 to this month, day by day engagement time from new customers has gone from lower than 20 minutes to someplace within the mid-30s. Who’s proper? Is it higher than ever, or does it suck?

The issue could also be that Musk simply can’t appear to scrub out all of the cussed wokeness residue stuffed into X again when it was referred to as Twitter. His tweet saying it sucked was a response to former online game govt Mark Kern complaining that the algorithm weights posts much less closely if they arrive from accounts which have been blocked rather a lot. Kern says he suspects that this biases the algorithm towards posts from right-wing accounts like his personal. That’s believable I suppose, although it virtually definitely biases the algorithm towards accounts that publish a number of harassment and abuse, so make of that what you’ll.

Judging from what’s within the plain textual content readme paperwork within the Github dump, this newest X algorithm is what you most likely count on when you use X: an replace to the TikTok technique of hooking customers. My impression of what’s described is that, unsurprisingly, it prioritizes engagement, trying to determine which posts will make the consumer cease scrolling. It pulls from accounts you comply with, but in addition accounts deemed to be much like these you comply with. It’s interesting to your id, not your superego. It doesn’t matter what you suppose you’re there to see, it desires to indicate you no matter will make you retain observing it. 

Along with sucking, Elon Musk additionally says it’s “dumb.” Replying to a criticism from blogger Robert Scoble complaining that the algorithm favors posters who hijack information occasions, Musk says the algorithm will enhance each month—seemingly referring to the four-week anticipated cadence for GitHub code dumps. 

We try to to make the algorithm much less dumb.

It’ll enhance each month.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 20, 2026

And who is aware of, perhaps customers with superb concepts will dig not simply into the readme sections, however proper into the code, discover the actual issues, and move alongside options to Musk, and the algorithm will get extra satisfying and worthwhile over time. Alternatively, perhaps the wants of an organization that desires to hook customers as a way to get them to look at advertisements and generate income for itself, and the wishes of human beings who need to really feel properly knowledgeable and blissful are two completely irreconcilable ideas, and making a suggestion algorithm open supply as a way to attempt to serve each these kinds of want is completely futile. I suppose we’ll see which of those maybes is definitely true.