March 5 (Reuters) -

Digg founder Kevin Rose has teamed up with former rival

Alexis Ohanian to buy the once-popular content aggregator as

they bet on an artificial intelligence-powered revival of the

platform that once drew around 40 million monthly visitors.

Launched in 2004 by a then 27-year-old Rose, Digg was

once called the "homepage of the internet" and was a rival to

Reddit ( RDDT ), a firm co-founded by Ohanian.

But the platform lost ground after its 2012 sale to New

York-based tech incubator Betaworks. Microsoft's ( MSFT )

LinkedIn scooped up its most valuable assets, including patents.

It has since pivoted to curating news.

Rose and Ohanian, who acquired Digg for an undisclosed sum,

said on Wednesday they aim to revive the platform by leveraging

their social media expertise, restoring its nostalgic early

interface.

Digg's early model allowed users to "digg" or "bury"

content- an early precursor to how social media platforms

surface viral stories today.

The duo also plans to use AI-driven curation to curb

misinformation and toxic discourse.

"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," Rose said.

He added that he had been approached several times over the

past years to buy Digg but it "never felt right" before.

Invites for the new version will roll out in the coming

weeks, as Digg prepares to reenter a crowded social media

landscape where smaller players such as Pinterest are jostling

for ad dollars and user attention with giants such as Meta.

Justin Mezzell, a longtime collaborator of Rose with

experience at Google and Facebook, will take over as Digg CEO.

The deal is backed by venture capital firms True Ventures,

where Rose is a partner, and Ohanian's Seven Seven Six. Rose

will be Digg's board chair and key advisor.

Ohanian has also joined a bid led by former Los Angeles

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations.