Elon Musk said that X, formerly known as Twitter, is moving to a “monthly payment system” because “it’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” reports Deadline.

“We’re wanting it to be just a small amount of money,” Musk said. “It’s a longer discussion, but in my view this is the only defense against vast armies of bots, because as AI gets very, very good, it’s actually able to pass these sort of CAPTCHA tests better than humans.”

Musk has long complained about X/Twitter’s battle against bots, continues Deadline, “but he’s also reportedly considered putting the social media platform behind a paywall since shortly after he purchased it last year.

“His statements also come as the company grapples with a loss of ad revenue. Musk wrote in July that the company had seen a nearly 50% drop in ad revenue plus a heavy debt load.”

More here.