Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently posted a low-resolution video to his Twitter account, which has over 140 million followers. In the video, Musk is barely visible due to its poor quality, which led some users to mock him by calling him “8-Bit Elon.”
The video was taken during a livestream from Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, where Musk was testing the platform’s livestreaming feature. He told his followers that he was using the livestream to look for areas of improvement in the feature.
During the livestream, Musk appeared amazed as he observed that the feature was working. A Twitter staffer who was nearby told him that the livestream was powered by the same code that underpinned the app Periscope, a live video streaming app that was launched in 2015 and eventually acquired by Twitter.
“It’s amazing this works… this is 2015 #Periscope code”
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) May 3, 2023
–@ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/JOznvPBKsW
Musk acknowledged that the code was from 2015 and said, “It basically works.” He explained that they were testing the live video feature to see if it worked, and they would modify it accordingly to improve its quality.
Musk also commented on the low resolution of the video, saying, “It’s pretty low res, we definitely need to improve resolution.” This comment was likely a nod to the fact that the Periscope app was discontinued in 2021 due to declining usage and the high cost of keeping it operating.
Overall, Musk’s video and livestream from Twitter’s headquarters were part of his ongoing efforts to explore new technologies and improve existing ones. While the low resolution of the video may have been the subject of some teasing on social media, it was ultimately a minor blip in Musk’s larger efforts to push the boundaries of what is possible in tech.
During Elon Musk’s livestream from Twitter’s headquarters, a Twitter employee explained to Musk that the poor video quality was due to a technical issue that had not been fixed in eight years. Musk expressed agreement, saying “That’s exactly right. That’s why we wanted to take it out.”
As the livestream continued, the viewer count grew to 27,000 people, prompting Musk to greet them with a cheerful “Hello, everyone!” However, the number of viewers eventually soared to 150,000 before the livestream crashed altogether.
Following the livestream, some Twitter users teased Musk for the low-resolution video quality, comparing him to 8-bit video games from the 1980s and 1990s. Others noted the irony that Musk had spent over $44 billion to buy Twitter, only to encounter a technical issue that could not be easily fixed.
Despite the technical difficulties, Musk’s livestream was seen as a successful test of Twitter’s livestreaming feature. Musk’s interest in livestreaming and other forms of online communication is in line with his overall focus on innovative technologies and his desire to push the boundaries of what is possible in the tech industry.
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