The AI that’s helped keep visitors free of unwanted nudity or masturbation has been a good investment, says Ternovskiy. It may also offer lessons for much larger social networks struggling to moderate content that can veer into falsehoods or toxicity. But Ternovskiy still dreams of a platform that creates happy human connections, and cautions that technology can’t deliver that alone. “I doubt the machine will be ever able to predict: Is this content desirable for my user base?” he says. A 17-year-old Ternovskiy coded and created Chatroulette in November 2009 from his Moscow bedroom as a way to kill boredom. Three months later, the site attracted 1.2 million daily visitors. Then came the exodus. Ternovskiy dabbled in some ill-fated partnerships with Sean Parker and others to try to keep Chatroulette relevant. In 2014, he launched a premium offering that paired users based on desired demographics, which generated some revenue. He invested some of that money in cryptocurrency ventures that brought additional gains. Chatroulette today is based in Zug, Switzerland, a crypto hub.