‘Radical reset’: Uplifty app aims to help university students find connection offline

Uplifty AI, founded by Scott Amyx, is launching a new encrypted app that has already been tested by nearly 10,000 university students across the United States. The platform represents a direct challenge to traditional social media, positioning itself as a 'post-social media cultural response' and aiming to lay the groundwork for a 'radical reset of the internet.' At its core, the app uses a unique algorithm designed not to maximize screen time or exploit user attention, but to actively facilitate real-world community building and meaningful offline interaction.

Privacy is a central tenet of the platform, which is fully encrypted. The app is specifically designed for students to organize, coordinate, and meet at a wide range of in-person events. These can include climate action protests, beach clean-ups, and visits to aged care homes, shifting the digital tool's purpose from virtual engagement to tangible, local action. Founder Scott Amyx states the mission is to 'change everything from the ground up,' directly countering the algorithmic models of major platforms that determine content based on user behavior to drive engagement.

The launch comes amid a global context of youth-led movements, often organized online, that have had significant real-world political and social impacts. Uplifty AI seeks to harness that organizational energy but redirect the platform's incentives away from the attention economy. By focusing on encryption and algorithmically promoting real-world meetups, the app aims to rebuild digital infrastructure around community and action rather than passive consumption and data exploitation.