Remember Orkut? Its founder wants to bring it back

Orkut Büyükkökten's latest push to revive Orkut highlights a potential counter-narrative to the prevailing trends in social media, specifically the increasing integration of AI and algorithmic content. His public appeal on X and a letter on Orkut.com suggest a desire to re-establish a platform prioritizing authentic human interaction over AI-driven engagement. This stance positions a potential new Orkut as a direct challenge to the current social media landscape.

The founder's previous attempts to re-enter the social networking space, such as Hello in 2016, which shut down in 2020 after attracting 2 million downloads, suggest that user interest alone may not guarantee sustained success. While Orkut once had about 300 million active users, the current appeal for names on a website does not confirm whether a new platform is in development or will ever launch. This makes the current initiative more of a concept validation than a product announcement.

Büyükkökten's earlier hint in 2022 about "building something new" and a 2024 statement to WIRED about working on a social network that would "leverage AI and machine learning" to foster communities contrasts with his current criticism of AI-generated content. This shift suggests an evolving perspective on AI's role in social media, potentially indicating a more selective or constrained application of AI in his envisioned platform, focused on connection rather than content generation. The lack of clarity on how AI might be used, if at all, in a revived Orkut leaves the practical implementation open to speculation.