Renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk has announced plans to implement a small fee for new users on the social media platform X to combat the proliferation of bots. 

Musk stated that charging a nominal fee is the only effective way to address the “onslaught of bots” that can easily pass verification measures like CAPTCHA.

Responding to a user’s post about changes on social media platforms, Musk emphasized the need for a fee to deter bots. 

He acknowledged that current artificial intelligence (AI) and troll farms have no trouble passing verification tests designed to identify bots. 

Musk believes that implementing a small fee for new accounts is the most viable solution to this persistent issue.

In a subsequent reply to another user, Musk clarified that the fee requirement would only apply to new accounts for the first three months. 

After the initial period, new users would be able to post without paying a fee.

While specific details regarding the implementation date and fee structure have not been provided, X had previously introduced a similar approach in October. 

New unverified users from New Zealand and the Philippines were required to pay $1 per year to access posting and interactive features.

 It is speculated that Musk might adopt a similar fee structure for other regions.

X had recently announced a campaign to eliminate spam accounts, warning users that their follower count might be affected. 

However, the introduction of fees for new users suggests that the social media platform is taking further steps to combat the bot problem.

Musk has expressed concerns about AI bots. X updated its policy last year to allow public posts to be used for training machine learning algorithms and AI models. 

Musk’s AI company, xAI, had previously stated its intention to leverage public posts for training purposes.

Recently, xAI made its Grok chatbot available to premium users of X who pay a monthly subscription fee. 

The chatbot was initially exclusive to users on the Premium+ tier. Reports indicate that X intends to expand access to the Grok chatbot, allowing users to compose posts using the AI-powered tool.