Yahoo, the news giant, is acquiring Artifact, the news aggregator created by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, to enhance its AI news recommendation algorithm
The reports about the Artifact app’s demise were not exaggerated. Yahoo announced on Tuesday that it had acquired the news aggregator app developed by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Artifact will no longer exist as a standalone app; however, its AI-powered personalization technology will be integrated into Yahoo products such as the Yahoo News app.
Artifact was launched in January 2023, and approximately a year later, Systrom and Krieger announced its closure. In a blog post at the time, Systrom wrote, “We have created something that a dedicated group of users adore, but we have determined that the market opportunity is not substantial enough to justify ongoing investment in this direction.”
In the year after its launch and before its closure, Artifact introduced several new features, such as AI-generated article summaries, a Twitter-like posting function, and the ability for users to comment on and flag articles as clickbait. However, managing some of these features, particularly moderation, proved challenging for the app’s small team of eight.
The app utilized an AI-driven algorithm to suggest news and articles to users according to their interests and reading history. Despite attracting a dedicated fan base, the app failed to gain broad popularity. Yahoo, one of the world’s largest news and information platforms with hundreds of millions of readers, stepped in.
“Yahoo was among the pioneers in blending human and algorithmic news curation. Over time, the field of machine learning and personalization has evolved significantly, and Artifact has kept pace with top-notch technology to remain relevant. Artifact has garnered a loyal following, and we are excited to expand on that technology, advancing our goal of becoming the go-to source for digital information and the premier curator connecting individuals with the content most relevant to them,” stated Kat Downs Mulder, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo News, in a press release.
In a statement, Systrom expressed his hope that the intuitive product experience can now achieve the scale that he and Krieger originally envisioned.
