Vine video-sharing app is back – and battling AI slop
As a pioneer of the short-form video format, Vine has been credited as one of the most influential – if short-lived – social media platforms.The app, which allowed users to record a looping six seconds of video, boomed in popularity after its launch in 2013, spawning a plethora of viral comedy sketches and internet memes.It hit 100 million monthly active users at its peak and helped launch the careers of influencers such as Logan Paul.It was snapped up by Twitter – now X – soon after its creation, but closed in 2017 after the platform failed to make the sums add up.Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, is now backing an attempt to bring back a revamped version of the much-loved platform with a new philosophy: to be the short-form video app offering “freedom from AI slop”.
The former Twitter chief executive has funded the new platform, which will host 500,000 videos from the original Vine app and also let users post new content.Any new material has to meet the traditional six-second time limit and must also be made by a human.Under a new name, Divine, the platform has relaunched in app stores, with a philosophy stating: “Creative power belongs in human hands.”It comes as low-quality AI-generated material is becoming increasingly hard to avoid online.Recent research found that more than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm showed to new users were “AI slop”.
Divine was initially launched to testers last November, hosting 100,000 popular videos from the original app, and it is now open to everyone.The project has been spearheaded by Evan Henshaw-Plath, known online as Rabble, a former Twitter employee who wanted to give old vines a permanent home.He said there had already been interest from some original Vine creators in the project.While the return of the app will generate nostalgia among a large cohort of web users, those behind its return have bigger aims.“Divine began as a personal project to reconnect with a time when the internet felt creative, open, and unquestionably human,” said Henshaw-Plath.
“The overwhelming response we got to our initial announcement has turned my side project into more of a movement.The app launch is less about nostalgia, and more an antidote to what social media has become.“Divine will start to redress the balance of power by giving creators and users more of a say in their online social lives and businesses.”To ensure no AI-generated content is posted, Divine makes users either record videos directly on the app or verify them as human-made using a verification tool.Funding has come through Dorsey’s non-profit fund, and Other Stuff, which backs open source social media projects.
“It is no secret that we didn’t find a business model for Vine,” said Dorsey.“A founding principle for Divine is that creators will always be in full control of their content and followers, enabling them to create and grow their own revenue streams.”The project reflects the regret felt by key parties in the sale and closure of the original Vine.The app’s founder, Rus Yusupov, made no secret of his belief that the sale to Twitter was an error.After Twitter announced it was closing the site, he posted: “Don’t sell your company!”However important Vine may have been in the evolution of digital platforms, the new app faces huge barriers to success.
Short-form video has exploded, with sites such as TikTok now established.Meta has its own platforms, including Instagram Reels.YouTube Shorts, owned by Google, averages more than 200bn daily views.
Google announces raft of free upgrades for Android phones
Google has announced a range of features coming to Android phones this year, including a new Gemini Intelligence AI system and a tool to help users avoid distracting apps.Revealed in a livestreamed “Android Show” event, the free upgrades are scheduled to arrive in waves over the next year for high-end new and old phones alike, including Samsung and Pixel devices. Google also revealed that a new lineup of laptops will arrive in the autumn.Gemini Intelligence will combine the company’s top AI tools into one system aimed at being more proactively useful.It will be able to automate tasks by directly interacting with the apps already on a phone
Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military
The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation revealing the military had used the company’s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found the military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft is understood to have recently concluded. Its findings are unclear; however, sources familiar with the situation said they prompted an announcement last week that Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company
GameStop’s $55.5bn bid for eBay rejected as ‘neither credible nor attractive’
The board of eBay has rejected the US video games retailer GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn bid (£41bn) for the online marketplace, describing the proposal as “neither credible nor attractive”.Earlier this month, GameStop made an unsolicited bid for eBay, publishing a letter on its website outlining a half-cash, half-stock proposal.This was despite the US games company – which became a global household name during the meme stock craze of 2021 – being worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn before its bid, almost a quarter of eBay’s $46bn valuation
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian.Donald Trump is headed to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, would join Trump
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech while emulating Xi Jinping on AI
Donald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official.Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO – who is close to Trump but criticized the US’s limitations on chip sales to China in an April interview, saying that he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI – will not be joining the president
Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright
Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat)
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