I don't know whether or not Twitter is actually seeing unprecedented levels of traffic due to ChatGPT plugins or whatever else—I personally doubt it, but I'm willing to believe it's possible.
However, that Twitter can't keep up with the load is completely unsurprising after the way Musk treated Twitter's engineers. You can't indiscriminately shed 80% of the company[0] and expect to have magically retained the key people who understand your distributed system well enough to adapt it to new strains and pressures. There were people in that 80% who knew how to solve this problem and are no longer available to help. There are probably people in the remaining 20% who know how to solve it but are afraid to speak up because Musk has created a hostile work environment.
However, that Twitter can't keep up with the load is completely unsurprising after the way Musk treated Twitter's engineers. You can't indiscriminately shed 80% of the company[0] and expect to have magically retained the key people who understand your distributed system well enough to adapt it to new strains and pressures. There were people in that 80% who knew how to solve this problem and are no longer available to help. There are probably people in the remaining 20% who know how to solve it but are afraid to speak up because Musk has created a hostile work environment.
[0] https://www.engadget.com/80-percent-of-twitters-full-time-st...