By Richard Thompson

A bizarre conspiracy claiming Elon Musk uses an alias to praise himself on his own social media network took an unexpected turn when a journalist who debunked the theory was banned from the platform.

Jacqueline Sweet appeared to be restricted on X after she published an investigation that proved Adrian Dittmann was an actual person living in Fiji - and not Musk operating under the pseudonym in order to praise himself.

Shortly after Sweet's article - outing Dittmann as a German entrepreneur - was published in The Spectator World, Musk responded a predictably cryptic post on X.

'I am Adrian Dittmann. It's time the world knew,' Musk deadpanned.

His response, of course, only increased the intrigue surrounding the superfan.

Meanwhile, according to Sweet's managing editor, the reporter's account was suspended for 30 days. In addition, links to her article about Dittmann have been hit with a warning label, alleging 'violent or misleading content.'

For years, Dittmann's X account has drawn attention for its effusive praise of Musk, sparking rumors that the Tesla CEO had been using the account to defend himself and promote his views.

Critics pointed to similarities in writing styles and accents, even going as far as to suggest Musk was using a voice modulator to pose as Dittmann in live X Spaces chatrooms.

The rumors gained traction with other news outlets including Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and The Verge exploring the theory.

Some claimed to have evidence that appeared to connect Musk and Dittmann directly. That was all later debunked.

Sweet's investigation seemed to put the speculation to rest once and for all.

Using a combination of social media analysis, AI comparisons, and government video footage, Sweet identified Dittmann as a young, blonde German entrepreneur who lives in Fiji.

His business ventures and personal history, including participation in a Musk Foundation carbon removal contest, matched details provided by the Dittmann account.

Despite the detailed reporting setting the record straight, Sweet's X account was promptly restricted, with the platform accusing her of 'doxxing.'

Screenshots shared by Spectator World Managing Editor Matt McDonald showed that Sweet is barred from posting for 30 days, with users attempting to access her article met with warnings about unsafe content.

The move has sparked fierce debate. Critics of Musk and X accused the platform of suppressing journalism to protect Musk's image.

'This is a direct assault on press freedom,' one commentator wrote.

Others highlighted the irony of Musk's previous condemnation of Twitter's suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election.

Supporters of Musk, however, celebrated Sweet's suspension, arguing that her reporting crossed ethical boundaries by revealing private details about Dittmann.

Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist has touted X as a bastion of open dialogue, only to now face accusations of using the platform to stifle dissent.

Regardless, the fascination with Dittmann persists. Sweet's report described him as the son of a German software engineer, with a history of business ventures including a bottled water company and a marina.

His social media accounts and participation in events like the Musk Foundation's $100 million Xprize Carbon Removal Contest lend credence to Sweet's findings.

Photos and videos of Dittmann show a striking resemblance to his AI-generated profile pictures, down to the woman who frequently appears alongside him, matching artwork posted by his account.

Still, critics note that Dittmann was not interviewed for the article, leaving some details about his identity unconfirmed.

As Sweet's suspension continues to draw attention, Musk remains characteristically unbothered, even joking about the situation on X.

Dittmann made headlines in 2023 when Musk directly acknowledged the similarity in their voices after the former appeared on Alex Jones' controversial InfoWars podcast.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur commented, 'at some point there’s just going to be like 100 AI clones of me that sound exactly the same.'

Speaking late on X's Spaces last February, the pair spoke to each other while directly addressing claims Musk was posing as Dittmann.

Musk says: 'Alex Jones thinks it's me?'

Dittmann begins to explain the conspiracy before he is cut off by Musk laughing.

Musk continues: 'There's eight billion people on the earth. The odds are there's someone who sounds like me somewhere. And you are that person.'

'Honestly, I don't believe you're not me,' he jokes.

'People think I'm legitimately your clone,' Dittmann responds. 'Like one of your Neuralink experiments. Can you clarify that I'm not one of your Neuralink experiments? Or maybe I am and I just wouldn't realize it?'

Musk suggests: 'Well, the thing is you even ask questions in the way that I would ask questions!'

Dittmann says he discovered Musk watching SpaceX videos in 2016, before his partner pointed out the similarities in how they sound.

'Something's not quite right with this world. Probably like a bug in the simulation,' Dittmann continues.

But he goes on to brush off the furor around the comparisons since as the 'stupidest thing I've ever seen'.

Musk asks what Dittmann looks like when a third voice chimes in, 'I've seen Adrian: he could be your twin!'

Dittmann later goes on to praise Musk for his work on X, saying he uses Spaces 'practically eight hours a day, three times a week' before chatting about Musk's family.

The call was prompted by the rumors online, which led Dittmann to write on Sunday: 'You know you've made it when there are conspiracy theories about you on the internet.'

Dittmann also showed support for Musk's rebrand of the X site, writing: 'I honestly enjoy the less gimmicky approach of calling posts for what they are as opposed to tweets.'

Last January, Dittmann showered praise on Tesla tweeting: 'It took Boston Dynamics 30 years to achieve what Tesla achieved in one.'

Of most interest to speculators were the posts outwardly praising X's direction. Last February, Dittmann wrote: 'Anything is possible on the everything app X.'

He previously wrote: 'X will become the gold standard for social media platforms of the future.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to X for comment.

By Richard Thompson

The brain often blurs the senses – a fact that marketers often use in the design of food packaging. And AIs appear to do the same.

What is the flavour of a pink sphere? And what is the sound of a Sauvignon Blanc?

Such questions may sound ridiculous, but a huge body of literature shows us that the human brain naturally merges sensory experiences. We may not be conscious of the phenomenon, but we associate different colours, shapes and sounds with different flavours in ways that can subtly shape our perceptual experience, for example.

The colour of our glass, or music playing in the background of a bar, can determine how sweet or musky a wine tastes, for instance. "This cross talk between the senses is happening almost on an ongoing basis all the time," explains Carlos Velasco at the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, Norway. In extreme cases it can manifest in a blurred sensory experience for some people where words might trigger specific tastes or music produces a riot of colour – something known as synaesthesia.

And while the idea that you can "taste" a colour or sound may seem absurd enough, Velasco's latest research suggests that generative artificial intelligence systems may also do this too. As with all AI algorithms, this is largely a reflection of biases in the data they were trained on, so they are perhaps just highlighting how common these associations may actually be. But Velasco and his colleagues hope to use this fact to find many other ways to hack human senses.

Eating with the eyes

First, a note on terminology. Scientists use the term "sensory modality" to describe the means that the body uses to encode information – through, for example, our taste buds, ear drums, the retina in our eyes or the "tactile corpuscles" in our skin. The associations that we tend to form between different sensory qualities are therefore known as "cross-modal correspondences".

Experimental evidence for this phenomenon first emerged in the 1970s, with studies suggesting that red and pink hues are associated with sweetness, yellow or green with sourness, white with saltiness and brown or black with bitterness. These general patterns have now been replicated many times since, using multiple experimental methods.

Participants may be asked for their subjective judgement of abstract questions such as: "On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most sweet, how sweet is the colour red?" From this, you can see that, on average, each colour has a unique flavour profile shared by large numbers of people across different cultures. A multinational collaboration, led by Xiaoang Wang at Tsinghua University in China, found similar cross-modal correspondences in Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian participants.

Alternatively, participants may be given a particular food or drink presented in multiple colours, and asked to judge the taste of each one. Eriko Sugimori and Yayoi Kawasaki at Waseda University in Japan, for instance, have found that bitter chocolate tastes considerably sweeter when it is wrapped in pink, rather than black, packaging.