Social News Site Digg Returning From Moonbirds, Reddit Founders—With an AI Twist

Kevin Rose, the tech entrepreneur and co-creator of Ethereum NFT project Moonbirds, is bringing back Digg, the once-prominent social news site that he co-founded in 2004.

Rose and Alexis Ohanian—a co-owner of the venture and co-founder of one-time Digg competitor Reddit—acquired the brand, and plan to put “humanity and connection” at the center while utilizing a strong dose of AI to help strike an ideal balance of community and content moderation.

Alongside Rose and Ohanian, Justin Mezzell—the former COO of Rose’s Moonbirds company Proof, and the artist behind that prominent collection—will join the new Digg as CEO.

“At various times over the years I had been approached to repurchase Digg; it never felt right,” said Rose in a statement. “Just recently we’ve hit an inflection point where AI can become a helpful co-pilot to users and moderators, not replacing human conversation, but rather augmenting it.”

The rebooted platform will take a mobile-focused approach and aims to prioritize transparency while offering unspecified “rewards” for human effort.

“Kevin and I are here to build something better than what social platforms are offering today,” said Ohanian. “AI should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections.”

“I’m all in on this chapter,” he added.

The Reddit co-founder is hoping to make another social platform better as well, having just joined Project Liberty’s bid to acquire TikTok for the U.S. market. Ohanian said that he wants to bring the video-based social platform on-chain.

Representatives for Digg did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on whether or not Digg may have blockchain or crypto connections, given the mention of rewarding human participation.

Rose’s return to Digg comes after an unceremonious end to his last high-profile venture with Proof and Moonbirds. After raising more than $60 million in funding—including $10 million from Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six—the team faced immense criticism after the massive Moonbirds launch, with the value of the NFTs falling alongside the rest of the market.

Proof was ultimately sold to Yuga Labs in early 2024. Moonbirds NFTs now start at a price of about $1,000 worth of ETH on the secondary market, after initially selling for about $7,600 each during the initial sale in April 2022.

Digg was acquired by Rose and Ohanian for an undisclosed sum, and is backed by their respective VC firms, True Ventures and Seven Seven Six. The site currently allows users to sign up for early access by adding their email address.

Edited by Andrew Hayward