For those of you who remember the early 2010s with the clarity of a hawk, Chatroulette was at one point the internet’s simultaneous supernova and black hole. The app exploded and garnered immense popularity before getting flooded with unwanted nudes and sexual advances that made it no longer desirable to users.

But lo and behold, the app that randomly pairs strangers for chats (and video chats), is finally getting its second chance—in large part due to the pandemic that has made the in-person meeting of strangers rather impossible. But we also owe this resurgence to artificial intelligence (AI) that is engineered for this specific app to filter unwanted and objectionable images.

Chatroulette has thoroughly cleaned up its platform. In September 2020, Bits & Pretzels, a conference about startups, hosted a three-day symposium on Chatroulette showcasing how the new and improved app will be full of surprising conversations, without the nudes. Ternovsky, one of Chatroulette’s spokespeople, said that AI has helped immensely in keeping the platform free of unwanted sexual advances and nudes.

This news is extremely exciting, especially at a time where social interaction with strangers is still hard to come by.