Elon Musk's X announces deal with Visa to launch in-app financial services

Social media site X has announced a deal with Visa as part of plans to launch a digital wallet for making instant payments on the platform.
X chief executive Linda Yaccarino said in a post to the platform that Visa was the first partner for X Money, which she said will launch with an X Wallet later this year.
The system will enable users to link their digital wallet with their bank account and debit card to transfer funds to and from their bank account, as well as make peer-to-peer payments.
The move will be X's first into financial services, and feeds into a long-term aim of the site's owner, Elon Musk, who has spoken repeatedly of his desire to create an 'everything app', where users are able to access social media, entertainment, online shopping, communications and other services without having to leave that single app.
In a post to X on the announcement, Ms Yaccarino referred to it as 'another milestone for the Everything App', adding that the X Money account would 'debut later this year'.
'First of many big announcements about X Money this year,' she said.
According to reports in the US, X Money is expected to launch in the first quarter of this year, and will initially be used to allow creators on the platform to store their funds from posting and accept payments from subscribers without needing to use third parties.
Visa has not yet commented on the announcement.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

BBC News

an hour ago

• BBC News

What can Northamptonshire expect from Reform UK's Doge teams?

They have caused a stir in Donald Trump's US and now Elon Musk-style Doge teams are descending on Northamptonshire's two unitary councils, which are run by Reform UK. What can people in the county expect from them and what have they achieved elsewhere? What is Doge all about? Hardly anyone had heard the acronym Doge before Donald Trump returned to the White House in idea is reported to have surfaced first at a dinner party where Donald Trump's billionaire advisor, Elon Musk, was speaking in Tesla, Space X and X businessman told fellow diners that, if given the passwords to government computers, he could streamline its Trump became President again this year, he set up the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and put Musk in charge of aim was to end the "tyranny of bureaucracy", save taxpayers' money and cut the US national debt, said has actually happened so far is two million federal workers being offered a deal to leave. What are Reform UK's Doge team doing in Northamptonshire? A preliminary meeting with the Doge team happened this week at West Northamptonshire Council, and it will be descending on North Northamptonshire in the near future following the huge swing from the Conservatives to Reform UK in the May local Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, who received a hero's welcome when he met his councillors in Corby on Tuesday, explained how it would work."The Doge team comes in and it talks to the officers and says 'we want to look at the books, we want to see what money's been spent on this, what money's been spent on that, we want to see the credit card statements, we want to see the contracts'," he took repairing potholes as an example and said Doge would ask "Who've you assigned to do this job? How long is the contract for? What's the cost? Is it based on results?"He insisted that "not everything about Doge is critical, not everything about Doge is slagging off what's gone before. I'm really hoping that Doge can help everybody".Reform UK said its team in West Northamptonshire would consist of "software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors". How much is Doge costing taxpayers? The short answer, according to Reform UK, is Arnull, leader at West Northamptonshire, said: "The cutting-edge expertise the Doge team are providing free of charge will make it that much easier to identify waste and free up funds."Martin Griffiths, who leads West Northamptonshire, said: "We're not going to pay a penny [for the Doge review] so that's why our officers are fully in support of this."Some politicians have questioned whether experts would really work for free, and have suggested the pro bono element might not be good for local Lehmann, Green party leader in Kent, the first council to undergo the process, said: "The fact that they have software engineers offering to work 'for free' is of particular concern, given that the data they are forcefully requesting access to would include significant volumes of commercially sensitive information and the personal data of many of Kent's most vulnerable residents." How have opposition parties reacted to Doge in Northamptonshire? The leader of the Labour group on West Northamptonshire Council, Sally Keeble is concerned about the team's accountability and use of has submitted a Freedom of Information request for all communication between the council and the team to be said: "If the Reform administration wants to appoint Doge, they should put the organisation through a transparent procurement process with safeguards in place for people's personal data." Helen Harrison, who leads the Conservative opposition in North Northamptonshire, has said she would welcome any efficiencies but believed the review should be carried out by council officers rather than an external Harris, who leads the Liberal Democrat group in the North, said: "We understand that during the visit on Friday, 13 June the Doge team asked for no information, were provided with no information, didn't share a plan, and yet proclaimed that they were already 'starting to save taxpayers money'." Harris added: "It begs the question why taxpayers are paying cabinet member allowances, including basic councillor allowances of around £424,000 to the [Reform UK] administration."It's their job to lead, set strategy and establish savings, not the responsibility of an unelected group of individuals."West Northamptonshire's Independent councillor Ian McCord said he had written to the council leader to ask whether advice had been sought about the legal standing of the Doge unit, and whether data held by the council would be safe. What effect has Doge had elsewhere? NIgel Farage is adamant that the Doge approach is said: "Already, in other counties, we have found examples of pretty egregious expenditure."In Derby, where there is a cabinet member for council efficiency (Doge), the party claimed to have made efficiency savings equating to £6,000 per later admitted that figure was a mistake and was more like £4,000 per day. An unlikely winner so far from the Doge initiative has been the public sector workers' union to data released to Sky News, weekly new memberships increased by an average of 272% in the week after the May election results were a weekly average of 12 new members at North Northamptonshire the union saw the figure shoot up to 27 in the week following the has admitted that efficiencies may be more difficult to find in Northamptonshire's two unitary councils, which came into being in 2021, than in some older politicians have pointed out that councils already face regular audits so Doge teams would simply duplicate that the available evidence, though, two things look certain: Northamptonshire will go through the Doge process, and it will still be controversial. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

NBC News

12 hours ago

• NBC News

What to expect when (or if) Elon Musk launches a Tesla robotaxi service

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising self-driving cars for a decade, and the moment of truth may finally be here. Musk, who's mostly back in the private sector after his chain saw-wielding turn in the Trump administration, has said that Tesla plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. Though he said the exact day could still shift, Tesla appears to be getting close to making an attempt, with videos spreading online of road tests where no human is in the driver's seat. But Tesla is also starting from behind. Waymo, a spinoff of Google, is already running a robotaxi service in several cities including Austin, and the service has a growing following. Safety remains a key question. Musk has rejected the idea of using radar and lidar sensors on Tesla vehicles, instead relying on cameras in a departure from some rivals. He has said the Tesla robotaxis are using a ' new version of software ' that's relatively untested. Federal regulators have been raising concerns about Tesla's driver-assistance software for more than a year, saying it contributed to hundreds of avoidable crashes, including some fatal crashes. Waymo's service has not reported any fatalities. Here's what to expect from Tesla's planned service. When will it start? Musk said this month that the robotaxi launch would be, 'Tentatively, June 22.' Musk has predicted for years that autonomous Tesla vehicles were just around the corner, to the point where it's become a meme. Musk told Fortune magazine in 2015 that autonomy was two years away, and he said in 2019 that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis on the roads in 2020. Texas Democrats on Wednesday asked Tesla to delay its launch until September, when a new state law could take effect and require robotaxi operators to obtain a state permit. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Who will be able to use this service? Very few people, at least to start. Musk has said that the service will begin very small, with as few as 10 vehicles the first week. They'll operate in Austin, but Tesla hasn't said how large its service area will be. There is no public waitlist, although Musk has said he wants to grow the service within a few months to catch up to Waymo. On Friday, some people on Musk's social media app X posted screenshots of what appeared to be invitations to 'early access of Tesla Robotaxi.' Robotaxi services work like a Lyft or Uber ride-hail service: A user orders a ride on a phone app by entering their starting point and destination. The key difference is that there's no one in the driver's seat, although it's not clear whether Tesla will have someone in the front passenger seat, as it has during test drives, or how much remote control of the car Tesla will have. How does this compare with Waymo? Waymo says its service covers 37 square miles in Austin, and customers there can order rides through the Uber app, in a partnership between the two tech companies. Waymo is also available in Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Atlanta, with plans to expand to Miami and elsewhere. Nationwide, Waymo says it has 1,500 vehicles on the road, plus parking lots, electric charging stations, maintenance staff and engineers to support the vehicles. 'Waymo is far and away the leader of the development of the technology here, and over the last 15 years has been evolving both the technology and related infrastructure to support what they're doing,' said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Transportation and Logistics. Tesla is calling its service Robotaxi, but so far the company has not succeeded in getting a trademark for the term. How safe will Tesla robotaxis be? Experts say that no one knows how safe Tesla's service will be. 'I'm glad they're starting small,' said Greg Stevens, the research director of Mcity, a testing lab for autonomous technology at the University of Michigan. 'As an engineer, I'm a real fan of small launches. Keep it simple in the beginning: launch a small number of vehicles and watch them very, very closely,' he said. Phil Koopman, an associate professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said that only a driving record over tens of millions of miles will determine Tesla's safety. 'Success is no crashes and no serious mishaps for the rest of the year, at least,' he said. 'Safety is not something where you can go look at the car and see that it's safe.' Tesla has a different approach to safety than its chief competitor. While Waymo uses a combination of cameras, radar and lidar to keep its bearings, Tesla relies on cameras only. It's an approach that Musk says is less expensive and 'superior' to using lidar, while federal regulators have said that Tesla's cameras may have trouble seeing in certain conditions such as fog and glaring sun. Musk has said that Tesla is 'being super paranoid about safety.' He has also said a more advanced version of Tesla's autonomy software 'still requires a lot of polishing.' Can Tesla just do this? Who has approved it? Texas has had relatively permissive laws about autonomous vehicles: Unlike in California, there's no state regulator in Texas that needs to sign off on the service. That may change in September, when a proposed Texas law requiring robotaxi operators to get authorization from the Department of Motor Vehicles is set to take effect. The bill has passed the state House and Senate and is awaiting action by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. If Tesla launches Sunday and Abbott signs the bill into law, it's not clear what would happen under the new law this fall. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the department would need time to put the law into effect and begin enforcement, a process that would most likely stretch into next year. Austin city officials also say they're prohibited under state law from regulating autonomous vehicles, but they have been documenting examples of safety concerns. In the first five months of this year, the city said it collected data on 35 safety incidents, such as blocking traffic, involving various companies. Austin officials said that as of Friday, they had not documented any safety incidents involving Tesla autonomous vehicles. 'The City treats each AV company that expresses interest in Austin the same, offering training opportunities and providing information about City right-of-way and procedure,' Jack Flagler, a spokesperson for the Austin transportation department, said in an email. He said the city had provided Tesla and others with maps, special event information and information about fire and police procedures. Tesla has sought to block the city of Austin from releasing government records about its planned service, according to Reuters. What happens if something goes wrong? Tesla has not publicly outlined any contingency plans, but if rival companies are a guide, Tesla will have staff ready to assist either in person or remotely. Test vehicles spotted in Austin have been followed close behind by what some people speculate to be 'trailing' vehicles driven by humans. Companies such as Waymo and the now-defunct Cruise say they can and do intervene remotely with vehicles if there's a problem — which for Cruise meant every 4 to 5 miles, according to CNBC. Cruise later shut down following a highly publicized crash involving a pedestrian. Tesla posted a job related to teleoperations and told Wall Street analysts to expect telesupport, according to Wired magazine and auto site Electrek, but the company hasn't provided details. The stakes are high for the whole robotaxi industry. 'That's my big worry: that all the progress we've made gets halted by some sort of major safety incident,' Stevens said. How quickly could Tesla come to other cities? Musk has said that safety and regulations will guide how quickly Tesla tries to expand the number of vehicles in the service. He told CNBC in an interview last month: 'I think we'll probably be at a thousand within a few months.' He also mentioned expanding to California, though Tesla does not have the permit required to operate there. Musk has also hyped a new vehicle, called Cybercab, that Tesla could potentially use for its robotaxi service, though for now the company is using existing model vehicles. And eventually, Musk has said that individual Tesla owners would be able to offer their vehicles for hire in the robotaxi service, but he has not set a date for when that might happen. 'How long did it take Waymo to scale up? Years and years and years. And there's no reason to believe it will be different for Tesla,' Koopman said. What will the impact on Tesla as a company be? The scheduled launch of the robotaxi service has helped to buoy Tesla's stock price in recent months, after the company's sales and profits cratered during Musk's time in the Trump administration and the resulting 'Tesla Takedown' protests against him and the company. Some investors think Tesla will be able to scale up its service quickly to dozens of cities over the next year, creating a new source of revenue while possibly also boosting vehicle sales. Some experts think that is the main point of the robotaxi launch. 'I think the objective that is paramount is stabilizing Tesla's stock price,' said MIT's Reimer. 'This is as much of a media stunt as anything else.'

Daily Mirror

20 hours ago

• Daily Mirror

Musk unveils chilling plan to rewrite history and everyone's saying same thing

Elon Musk unveiled plans to rewrite history using his own AI in a chilling online post that readers compared to George Orwell's 1984. In the classic dystopian novel, hero Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents and newspapers so they match the tyrannical government's constantly changing party line. Posting on X, Musk vowed to use the latest version of AI system Grok to 'rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors.' He said Grok, which X users can access directly within the app, would be 'retrained' based on the 'corrected' data. AI systems are trained on huge sets of data - mostly from publicly available sources like books, newspaper articles and other sources on the internet. ChatGPT, the main competitor for Musk's Grok AI, is estimated to be trained on more than a trillion words of information. In May, the Grok chatbot started repeatedly mentioning "white genocide" in South Africa in responses to unrelated queries. The bot told users it had been "instructed by my creators" to accept claims of a genocide were "real and racially motivated." Musk's firm says the bot is trained on "publicly available sources" but is designed to have a "rebellious streak and an outside perspective on humanity." Musk's suggestion would be for his next model to be trained not on original historical sources, but on Grok's revisions of them - with the erratic tech billionaire's team stepping in to remove 'errors'. Musk posted: 'Far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.' The post prompted many readers to respond comparing the plan to 1984. Orwell's 1949 novel paints a nightmarish picture of Britain under an authoritarian dictatorship, drawing on the censorship and propaganda seen in Nazi Germany. In the book, Smith is tasked with revising old newspapers, destroying the original documents by dropping them into the 'memory hole.'