Telegram partners with xAI to bring Grok to over a billion users (alternativeto.net)
from tonytins@pawb.social to technology@lemmy.world on 29 May 19:30
https://pawb.social/post/25445467

As part of the agreement, Telegram will receive $300 million in cash and equity from xAI. Telegram will also receive 50 percent of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via its platform.

Edit: Looks like the deal changed rather quickly.

#technology

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Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world on 29 May 19:34 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ab1e4a41-41c8-4bab-800e-f1dbcabd1335.gif">

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 29 May 19:45 next collapse

The beauty of open source is that there will be 3rd party clients that don’t care about all of that.

droopy4096@lemmy.ca on 29 May 20:12 next collapse

they will be integrating it on service side if I read it correctly so the choice of client would be non-important

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:07 collapse

They can’t force local UI elements via server. That’s impossible to do with forks who decide against following server side requests.

passepartout@feddit.org on 29 May 21:59 collapse

There are already agreements that forks are not allowed to remove the premium feature stuff, they could do this to grok as well.

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:05 collapse

That’s not how the GPL works. Any such agreements would be voluntary.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:17 collapse

Your non-premium account tries to use a feature available to premium and that doesn’t work. Where does the GPL come into equation?

Also they can detect alternative clients and ban them.

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 12:00 collapse

Grok UI elements and number of GIFs in the picker are 100% local features clients can choose to ignore.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 12:33 collapse

Ah, so you mean Grok service just being available from TG UI without any authentication from TG being used?

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 13:15 collapse

I‘m saying whatever the server asks the client, a client can choose to hide the UI elements. Nothing more, nothing less.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 13:34 collapse

Yes, I mean it wouldn’t change anything if Grok were a premium-only feature, apparently this was about ability to turn it off, ok fine.

Quill7513@slrpnk.net on 29 May 20:11 next collapse

elon musk in business deal with russian oligarch again. nothing is new

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:05 collapse

Telegram founder fled Putin.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:17 collapse

Not certain and doesn’t make him an angel.

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:58 collapse

Definitively certain and I didn’t call anyone an angel, so no idea why bring such a thing up.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 12:21 collapse

Well if anything such obviously advertising him as a fighter against the regime, while Telegram is not banned in Russia, is definitively certain for you - just go on.

weirdcarrotmonster@sh.itjust.works on 30 May 14:05 next collapse

Telegram is not banned in Russia in the same way YouTube isn’t. They fight it by attempting to decrease service quality, prompting users to switch platforms. In last few months connectivity without VPN degraded noticeably. It just happens that since it’s official ban (2018-2020) telegram evolved to be pretty resilient to blocking, and it’s easier to declare “yeah we signed a deal with Durov he works with us now, unbanned” than look like fools while blocking 1% of all IPv4 addresses (im not kidding) with no result.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 15:03 collapse

Not true. There was a period it wasn’t possible to use Telegram without VPNs. That’s in the past.

What shows their alignment best is that Russian state propaganda feels right at home in TG, while counterpropaganda channels from time to time get banned without explanation.

YouTube just plainly doesn’t work in Russia, its pages load, videos don’t.

The reason they say stuff about “degrading caching servers” and whatever other bullshit they say is to reduce visibility of their actions from the general population. It’s smart, not stupid. I thought it’s dumb that they always lie this way, until I realized that most of said lie sticks subconsciously, and the saved expenses at controlling the population add up. It’s like saving every dime being virtuous in the Protestant approach to life.

They could ban it completely.

than look like fools while blocking 1% of all IPv4 addresses (im not kidding) with no result.

They did look like fools, but the “no result” part is just not true, the result was achieved. Telegram didn’t evolve, it works the same as before, a typical client-server application.

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 18:04 collapse

Telegram is not banned in Ukraine either. There also are no Ukrainian sections against the founder.

I also did not call him a fighter against the regime. You have a vivid imagination.

Russia tried blocking Telegram once but Telegram relies on AWS and Google Cloud, so the blocking attempt backfired, leading to half the internet unusable in Russia, leading to quick back paddling by the Kremlin.

Since Telegram is not banned in either country, it’s the best source for unfiltered news from the front.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 19:15 collapse

It wasn’t “half the internet unusable”. I live in Russia, please stop dramatizing.

It was blocked well enough, but Russian state officials had their unofficial channels there for all that time.

Considering “the founder’s” history, I’d assume Telegram to be Russian government-compromised by default.

Also it’s not a source of news at all. That’s like calling “the Internet” your source. It’s a crowd. Some channels are better than others, but ultimately it can be compared to Facebook.

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 30 May 20:54 collapse

It wasn’t “half the internet unusable”.

Everything behind the same AWS and Google IPs which is a lot.

I live in Russia

So you pay taxes to Putin. Good to know who actually helps funding the regime.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 31 May 10:08 collapse

So you pay taxes to Putin. Good to know who actually helps funding the regime.

I suggest you go someplace else.

I won’t take this from a jerk from likely one of the countries buying fossil fuels from said regime, that have also supported it after a few falsified elections starting in 1996, which is also the year I was born.

And of course “paying taxes to Putin” can’t be even compared to what TG is doing, so just shut up and go do something you know how to do, like I dunno what.

Sneptaur@pawb.social on 29 May 20:15 next collapse

This is old news already; xAI backed out of the deal this morning.

bsky.app/profile/kateconger.com/…/3lqbe7bikzs2u

Either way, this “integration” is just Grok being available on Telegram for Premium subscribers only. It’s just like any other bot on the app.

tonytins@pawb.social on 29 May 20:19 next collapse

Thanks for the correction!

[deleted] on 29 May 20:36 next collapse

.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 29 May 23:33 next collapse

“No deal has been signed” does not mean they’ve backed out.

Sneptaur@pawb.social on 30 May 18:43 collapse

Yeah it’s pretty much unclear

Daggity@lemm.ee on 30 May 10:53 collapse

Looks like musk got his feelings hurt over it, interesting.

Sneptaur@pawb.social on 30 May 18:43 collapse

Likely because Telegram pointing out that xAI is paying them instead of the other way around is hugely embarrassing.

[deleted] on 29 May 23:00 next collapse

.

melroy@kbin.melroy.org on 29 May 23:00 next collapse

No deal.

pastermil@sh.itjust.works on 30 May 04:08 collapse

Anyone still uses Telegram? What is really their selling point? We already got WhatsApp and Signal.

tauren@lemm.ee on 30 May 06:52 next collapse

Anyone still uses Telegram?

Like 1B monthly active users.

Albbi@lemmy.ca on 30 May 15:38 collapse

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lazynooblet@lazysoci.al on 30 May 07:22 next collapse

I do

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 11:15 next collapse

Weird comparison.

WhatsApp is a kinda secure messaging app - small groupchats and personal chats first.

Signal is a secure messaging app - small groupchat and personal chats only.

TG is an app for big groupchats and channels, with dozens of people writing to one chat simultaneously, discussing big posts etc. It’s, once again, like IRC, just proprietary, with history and sharing files. Or like a social network without friends and feeds.

Honestly I can’t even blame TG for enshittificatory practices, because it gives so much more freedom to use it however one wants than the others. Even though I prefer to blame everything. All these things have taken a lot of work to create.

tauren@lemm.ee on 30 May 12:59 collapse

TG is an app for big groupchats and channels

You make it sound like that’s the sole purpose. There are 1:1 chats in Telegram and people actively use them. Everything else builds on top of that.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 30 May 15:06 collapse

That’s the only important advantage over anything else.

Quill7513@slrpnk.net on 30 May 11:50 collapse

by my experience mostly straight eastern europeans. everyone else either started on something else or they moved off telegram because they didn’t feel like they could trust it