IMPACT COMMUNICATION
AND INNOVATION
AND INNOVATION
Ever imagined a social network entirely dedicated and focused on aesthetics? Like a Tumblr, but without ads, sponsored posts, data being sold to unknown companies, or censorship? With the increasingly constant perception of a lack of privacy and the manipulation of data for advertising and sponsored content, more people—especially artists—are looking for other ways to form online communities without relying on these types of strategies. In a recent Dazed Digital article, we are introduced to a new social network that promises to be self-managed by its users, transparent, and based on artificial intelligence—this is New Life.AI.
With a nostalgic interface reminiscent of Blade Runner and 90s software, the social network is decentralized and features members such as Johwska,Ines Alpha,Allan Berger, and Virgen María, some of whom are already known for their net art and Instagram filters with a cyborg aesthetic, as previously discussed here. The network, as described by its creator Vector Newman (a pseudonym adopted for this new project), was designed to attract artists, people interested in technology, cryptocurrencies, designers, and everything at the intersection of these groups and aspirations.
The novelty, which shares similarities with the proposal of the old Paratii, is that all content is created and curated by the community itself, generating what is called the Aesthetic Quotient (AQ), which makes it possible to “find patterns between different things that people find beautiful” and, in doing so, create a real currency—something that makes a lot of sense for the premises of tokenization on blockchain-based platforms. “There is no boss, no executive. As the founder, I am managing the people, but eventually, I want this project to be managed and owned by the community,” Newman says in an interview with Dazed.
According to the report, the app, which currently requires an invite to test, has eight gamified levels. “This format is best for us because creativity requires a mood that should be relaxed and exciting,” comments Newman. Thus, each level unlocks different app features, such as a voting space where users are presented with various posts from the network, including content like Instagram filters or CGI characters acting as virtual influencers.
A user who passes the first level is invited to rate the quality of content by long-pressing it—the longer the user presses the image, the higher the score. This allows a number to be measured and evaluated by an artificial intelligence-based system, creating a kind of “collective mind” regarding aesthetics and beauty. “The more you vote with the community, the more Newpoints you earn. The more Newpoints you earn, the more features you unlock, the more weight your ratings will have in the cultural ecosystem, and the more exposure time your content will be given. There is even a HAL 9000-style chatbot you can talk to,” the article describes.
For every point received, the user can convert it into a cryptocurrency called New Coin. “The value of the Newcoin is measured by the curation, trust, and creativity of the app’s users,” explains Newman. In other words, the idea is for this currency to be a reflection of the community’s own self-regulation and to become something that can be used anywhere in the world, so that “a user in Sri Lanka can vote on content posted by a Mexican user, and some microscopic value will flow between the two and resonate with everyone else,” Newman adds.
In the long term, the platform aims to reach creatives outside of metropolitan centers who still have equal opportunities to those living in London, Paris, or New York, for example. “For now, my main project is focused on building bridges between countries that are not traditionally included in the global creative ecosystem, working with record labels and film studios in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Mali. We also work with a board of artificial intelligence experts to optimize the algorithms,” explains the creator of New Life.
All these terms, premises, and goals may seem somewhat utopian, and the fact that it involves blockchain, artificial intelligence, and social media—all very strong buzzwords at the moment—makes more people skeptical about the platform. The report, with a humorous tone, comments on how the NewLife logo itself is a Yohji Yamamoto-style reinterpretation of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man; that is, it is all too contemporary to be real.
“Still, Newman argues that New Life.AI is necessary to take the means of creative production away from the suits in Silicon Valley. ‘Most tech giants are working according to the valuation standards of the stock market and advertising agencies, which are based on engagement and aim to maintain daily activity by keeping the user plugged into the screen,’ says Newman. ‘Social networks considered that free access to their platforms was enough in exchange for all the work of production, likes, and shares. Some brands have made a lot of profit from this, but there is no compensation for the great minds who are working collectively to build it.’”
All that remains is for us to keep up with the latest news about the platform and, if possible, get an invite to test it out. After all, its goal is a good one: connecting artists outside of major urban hubs and implementing a system that pays for content creation in a decentralized and transparent way, since it is built on technologies like blockchain. But while we went through an internet bubble at the turn of the millennium, we may now be facing a decline in trust and expectations regarding cryptocurrencies, as no platform or service has yet proven revolutionary enough to truly change the status quo.
With the possibility of giants like Facebook adopting this same cryptocurrency premise, we may see a boost and a rush to launch new platforms that are still raising capital and refining their algorithms. Just as it happened with virtual reality and Facebook's acquisition of Oculus Rift, perhaps the revolution will begin with adoption by major companies so that access can become more widespread and distributed to the fringes.
