Elon Musk has recently revealed plans to revive Vine, though with an unexpected twist.
For those who may not remember, Vine was a precursor to TikTok, allowing users to create diverse short-form videos.
The platform was immensely popular among teenagers during the 2010s, featuring everything from singing to dancing.
Prominent figures such as Shawn Mendes, King Bach, and Jake Paul first gained recognition through Vine, and iconic clips like ‘look at all these chickens’ and ‘they were roommates’ became cultural touchstones. If you know, you know.
Vine was established in 2012 and soon acquired by Twitter, but it was shut down by the end of the decade, with all content archived.
In 2022, Musk conducted a poll on X, previously known as Twitter, to gauge interest in Vine’s return.
Popular YouTuber MrBeast responded to Musk’s poll, noting: “If you did that and actually competed with TikTok that’d be hilarious.”
Musk replied: “What could we do to make it better than TikTok?”
The general sentiment indicated a desire for Vine’s comeback, and Musk is now making it happen, but with a twist.
Musk announced via the social media platform he owns that Vine would be resurrected in an AI-driven format.
“We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form,” he stated.
This announcement has sparked mixed reactions on X, especially amid the rise of AI technology.
One critic expressed: “Vine isn’t Vine without human creativity. AI doesn’t create anything new,” while another commented: “So a bunch of short AI generated clips to keep people sucked into their phones even more.”
Conversely, a more optimistic user remarked: “Could be interesting to see what AI comes up with and evolves into.”
Concerns about AI’s role in Vine’s revival are understandable, especially after Musk’s recent AI project Grok was reportedly used for posting antisemitic content online.
Musk introduced Grok, which is based on a large language model (LLM) of the same name, in 2023.
Similar to ChatGPT, Grok aids in answering questions and brainstorming ideas.