She built a better social media platform where the AI protects users

^{A week in AI is like a year in other industries. I hope these issues become your weekly source of AI information, inspiration, and ideas. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about AI and the fascinating folks who are building in this brave new world.}

Good morning. Most of us have quietly accepted that the internet just works this way – platforms profit, we're the product. This week's founder spent decades inside the media machine before deciding to rebuild it, while using AI for good.

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Zoe Kalar spent 35 years building at the nexus of media, technology and entertainment, with a focus on frontier economic models. She led the first online sport experience to Australia and Asia Pacific, brought the first musical to China, and built and sold a $100 million advertising intelligence business. 

These experiences changed the way Kalar viewed the internet. Having had a front row seat to how billions of dollars moved through the ecosystem, while watching the erosion of publishing and the negative effects of new media, she was inspired to reimagine the social infrastructure – the algorithm, the feed, the ad delivery, and the economics. 

This includes features like controlling the feed according to your vibe, having a public and private profile, a “golden button” to watch ads and share in the ad money flow that goes straight to the WeAre8 wallet. The big differentiator is how the app redirects ad revenue back to the people generating the value. 

“We share 75% of the ad dollars with users, communities, charities, teacher’s fund, nurse’s fund, and climate projects. We have built a digital wallet into the experience so that money can actually move through the ecosystem rather than stopping at the platform,” Kalar said. 

“At scale, you’re not talking about a small incentive sitting inside an app. You’re talking about billions of dollars being redirected into households, creative careers, charities and community programs across the globe.” It’s using social media for social good. 

Kalar has scaled WeAre8 through the network effect. “People bring communities, communities bring creators, creators bring participation, and brands bring the economic value that allows that ecosystem to give back.” 

Kalar said AI actually protects their users, and the goal is to teach it what’s really important. 

“Our AI infrastructure sits underneath a number of things we do, including 8I Shield, our social safety technology designed to identify and protect people from harmful behaviour, toxicity, abuse and other risks that exist across social platforms,” she explained. 

The proprietary 8I Shield blocks hateful and harmful content in real-time. This comes at a time when Meta is paying billions in settlements after harming users, specifically children. 

“We're not using AI simply to recommend more content people may love. We also see WeAre8 as the framework to teach AI what humanity really wants. Unfortunately, AI has learnt a lot of things that are harmful to people – and as it is just a reflection of us, greed, power, control and all the negatives will come to the forefront if we don’t train AI in a better way.” 

Kalar suggests starting with the problem you’re trying to solve for a human being, not the technology. Don’t build for the market you think exists today. Build for where you believe the world is going. 

“When we started WeAre8, a lot of people thought the existing social media model was too powerful to challenge. I had spent enough time inside the advertising industry to see where the system was broken,” she said. 

“If you can see a problem clearly enough, don't be afraid to build from first principles. The biggest opportunities are often found in the places where everyone has accepted that the existing system is simply the way things have to be.” 

If one of these stories stuck with you, I’d love to hear which one.

Speak soon,
Amanda

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