Hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz Will Be a Twitter Intern and Promises to Fix a Search

Famous hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz, known for hack of an iPhone at the age of 17 and then breaking a Sony PlayStation 3, has agreed to become Elon Musk’s Twitter intern for 12 weeks.

At Twitter, which has only about 2,500 employees left after the downsizing (up from 7,500 initially), Hotz promises to improve search performance.

Let me remind you that in recent years, Hotz has been working on his own automotive startup, Comma.ai. Within its framework, GeoHot created a system from scratch that can turn an ordinary car into an unmanned vehicle.

Interestingly, in 2015, when Hotz was just starting to work on this project, he received a job offer from Tesla. Elon Musk personally invited Hotz to join Tesla and work on his own system that could replace Mobileye (at the end of 2016, Mobileye chips and software were replaced by the second-generation Autopilot). But the hacker then turned down the job offer, ironically promising Musk that he would contact him “when he crushed Mobileye.”

After that, Tesla lawyers prevented Hotz from purchasing a Tesla Model S 60 with Autopilot 2.0 on board. The hacker had already placed an order and set a delivery date, but Tesla unexpectedly delayed the car. Instead, Hotz received a call from one of the company’s lawyers, who during the conversation reminded him that the theft of someone else’s intellectual property is punishable by law. The fact is that Tesla suspected that Hotz would try to make his Open Pilot compatible with the new Autopilot hardware and that he wants to use Tesla’s developments for his project.

By the way, the security of Tesla systems still leaves much to space for improvement.

However, it seems that the old conflicts are now in the past. Now Elon Musk is actively changing the Twitter company, which he acquired last month. In particular, about 2,500 employees remained in the company, and among other things after the purchase, Musk fired the entire top management.

To all remaining employees, Musk suggested that they switch to a “hardcore mode” of work, that is, prepare for processing and work with exceptionally high intensity. To those who disagree, Musk offered to leave the company voluntarily. According to media reports, after these large-scale “purges”, Musk has already begun recruiting new staff and is now looking for talented developers to create Twitter 2.0.

George Hotz unexpectedly backed Musk last week:

Moreover, GeoHot has stated that he is ready to work on Twitter himself with a minimum wage, as an intern, as he believes that his work at Comma.ai is now completed and is leaving the company (currently kits compatible with 200 vehicles are sold for 1999 USD).

These statements were brought to the attention of Musk, who eventually invited Hotz to discuss a possible job on Twitter.

As a result, according to media reports, he will work in the company for 12 weeks and will take a kind of “internship” in the company, during which, in particular, he will try to improve the work of advanced search.