Three months ago, I wrote about how AI-generated content was killing social media, arguing that we needed a radical rethink of how platforms operate. I predicted that “a new breed of platforms” would emerge, designed to exclude the faceless AI accounts poisoning our feeds. Well, that future arrived faster than I expected.
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, has just funded diVine, a short-form video platform that’s essentially a Vine reboot with one crucial difference: it will actively flag and prevent AI-generated content from being posted. This isn’t just another social media launch; it’s a direct acknowledgment from one of the industry’s most influential figures that the AI slop problem has become existential.
Why This Matters
The timing of diVine’s launch tells us something important about where we are in the social media lifecycle. When someone like Jack Dorsey, who could invest in anything, chooses to back a platform explicitly designed to exclude AI content, he’s reading the same writing on the wall that I was. Users are fed up, platforms are becoming unusable, and there’s a genuine market opportunity for alternatives that prioritise human connection over algorithmic content generation.
What’s particularly interesting is that diVine isn’t just implementing basic content moderation; it’s building AI detection into the platform’s core functionality. This suggests they understand that fighting AI content can’t be an afterthought or a reactive measure. It needs to be fundamental to the platform’s architecture, baked in from day one.
This echoes exactly what I argued about needing platforms “designed exclusively for genuine user-generated or brand-generated content.” The key challenge I identified was keeping faceless channels at bay, and diVine’s approach suggests they’ve recognised the same problem. You can’t bolt AI detection onto existing platforms that were designed around different principles; you need to build it in from the ground up.
What This Means for the Future
The question now isn’t whether platforms will need to address AI content, but how quickly the incumbents will respond.
Will X, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest implement similar measures, or will they continue trying to moderate AI content reactively whilst their user experiences deteriorate? The fact that a co-founder of Twitter is building a competitor specifically to address this problem suggests he doesn’t believe the existing platforms can or will solve it adequately.
What’s most encouraging is that diVine proves my central thesis: the current trajectory is unsustable, and there’s genuine demand for human-centred alternatives. I wrote that “the platforms that recognise this shift early and build genuinely human-centred alternatives will likely capture the audience fleeing the AI-infested incumbents.” Dorsey clearly believes this too, and he’s putting his money where that belief is.
The Larger Battle
Of course, one platform won’t solve the entire problem. I’d love to say I’m surprised by this development, but honestly, it felt inevitable. The only question was when someone would finally build what we’ve all been craving: a social space that’s actually social again, where the content comes from humans who have something to say rather than algorithms optimised for engagement.
Let’s see if diVine can deliver on the promise.
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