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No more free X: Elon Musk plans paywall to block millions of fake accounts

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Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday hinted that users of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, may be charged a monthly fee, stating that a payment system is the only way to combat bots.

“We’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system,” Musk said, in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said that his solution to combat bots and fake accounts on social media is to charge for verification, though it remains unclear whether this was an off-the-cuff comment or a signal of firmer plans.

The social media giant X’s new owner, who took over last year, is incentivising users to pay for X Premium, offering paid subscribers more features like longer posts and increased visibility.

However, users can currently still use X for free.

Although Musk insists that getting people to pay for the service is aimed at tackling bots, there seems to be a clear financial interest for the company to charge users, according to BBC.

“A bot costs a fraction of a penny” to make he said. “But if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost to bots is very high”.

The world’s richest person is exploring cheaper options for users of X Premium, which currently costs $8 (£6.50) per month in the US, depending on the subscriber’s country.

“We’re actually going to come up with a lower tier pricing. So we just want it to be just a small amount of money,” he said.

“This is a longer discussion, but in my view, this is actually the only defence against vast armies of bots,” Musk added.

However, there is a chance that placing X behind a paywall may result in a drastic loss of a significant portion of its users.

It may even affect the company’s primary source of income at the moment, advertising revenue, causing a consequent decline.

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Moon train operations are planned by NASA.

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The goal is to construct the first lunar train system, which will enable safe, independent, and effective cargo transportation on the moon, according to robotics specialist Ethan Schaler of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

He went on, “The day-to-day functioning of a sustainable lunar base in the 2030s will depend heavily on a robust, long-lasting robotic transport system.”

The Flexible Levitation on a Track, or FLOAT, is the name of the proposed lunar rail system. According to NASA, the establishment of a railway system on the moon is “critical to the daily operations.”

According to the space agency, the primary objective of FLOAT is to offer transportation services in regions of the moon where astronauts are engaged in activities. To do this, cargoes of lunar soil and other materials will need to be transported to various regions of the moon.

Each robot will be able to transport cargo of various sizes and shapes at a pace of roughly 1 mph (1.61 km/h), according to Dr. Schaler.

Notably, NASA also declared new initiatives last month to create and test new vehicle models intended for moon exploration.

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Business

Pakistan’s lunar mission ‘ICUBE-Q’ reaches the moon orbit.

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Pakistan’s lunar mission (ICUBE-Q) entered orbit around the moon on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s historic lunar mission (ICUBE-Q) launched from Hainan, China, on Friday aboard China’s Chang’E6 spacecraft.

According to the IST, the satellite ICUBE-Q was planned and developed in partnership with China’s Shanghai University SJTU and Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO.

The ICUBE-Q orbiter is equipped with two optical cameras to image the lunar surface. ICUBE-Q has now been integrated into the Chang’e6 mission after successfully qualifying and testing it.

Chang’e6 is the sixth lunar exploration mission launched by China.

The launch event was streamed live on the IST website and social media platforms. Chang’6, China’s Lunar Mission, will land on the Moon’s far side to collect surface samples before returning to Earth for further research.

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Education

The establishment of IT labs in Islamabad’s educational establishments

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SIFC was established to improve the ease of doing business for potential investors through a “Whole of Government”Approach”—achieving optimal horizontal-vertical synergy and facilitation by the Pakistan Army—and to attract investments from friendly countries in selected sectors through an empowered organisation that serves as a “single-window” platform for facilitation.

The children will learn the newest skills in these state-of-the-art IT labs, expanding their employment prospects.

These IT laboratories will be constructed in sixteen degree colleges spread throughout various parts of Islamabad.

Students will take six-month courses in artificial intelligence (AI), game development, data science, and block chain in these IT labs.

Approximately 1,000 students will have access to courses in the first phase, which is being implemented in response to market demand.

The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission has worked with esteemed universities such as NUST, National Skills University, COMSATS, and NUML to produce these courses.

The second week of this month will mark the start of these classes. For these courses, about 3,600 students have signed up.

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