Before Reddit there was Digg, which popularized up- and down-votes on online posts. Now the founders of both platformssocial media veterans Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanianare relaunching the early Reddit rival with a focus on humanity and connection they hope will be boosted by the use of artificial intelligence.Rose founded Digg, which launched in 2004 and let people up- and down-vote (Digg or bury) content from users and from sources around the web. At its peak, it had 40 million monthly usersa high number for the time considering that Facebook only hit 100 million in 2008.Digg was divvied up and sold in 2012, with many of its assets and patents acquired by LinkedIn. Reddit, which launched in 2005 and was cofounded by Ohanian, took a similar approach to let users vote on what they thought was the best and worst content on the site.But much has changed since 2012not just when it comes to advances in artificial intelligence but also how people treat each other online.The social space online is definitely harsher, it feels like, than its ever been before, said Justin Mezzell, who will serve as the new companys CEO. It feels really difficult to connect. I think the platforms have gotten more disconnected. You know, if ever there was a true town hall of the internet, it feels like it has been deconstructed in a pretty big way.Diggs new leaders say they want to use artificial intelligence to handle the grunt work of running a social media site while allowing humans to focus on building meaningful online communities. The question, Mezzell said, is how to get people to show up and have conversations, to learn from each other, to share something theyre passionate about and do it earnestly? Especially when some of todays social media algorithms exist really just optimize for outrage.Rose said Digg will take a more nuanced approach to content moderation than banning or not banning content, which is a process that can be easy to get around.There is a world where, you know, you show up in (a) meditation (group) and youre swinging four-letter words all over the place, and you hit submit, he said. And we come back and we say, hey, you can post this, of course, but only 2% of the audience is going to see it, because the way that the moderator set the tone.That is unique. That is different. Thats not like a hard-defining rule, Rose added Its more like just sensing the voice and how it fits within the entire ecosystem and the model thats behind the scenes for that community.The new Digg will launch in the coming weeks as a website and mobile app.Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer