Yahoo has bought Artefact, the AI-powered news aggregation tool that Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger created. The company revealed this on Tuesday. The amount of money involved in the deal was kept private.
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram co-founders, founded Artefact. This personalised news feed app understands your interests and curates content from several publishers using machine learning. Consider it a text-based TikTok where you may browse popular articles and find new ones.
Krieger and System will offer their “advisory capacity” to Yahoo during the transition, but they will not officially join the company. Yahoo wants the tech that Artefact has, not its people.
Officially, the platform will no longer be available as a separate product. Instead, “the proprietary AI-powered personalisation technology and other features will be integrated across Yahoo, including the Yahoo News app, in the months to come,” which shows that AI will be used in more of the company’s products.
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Krieger-Systrom acquisition closes platform writing.
“We have built something that a core group of users love, but we have concluded that the market opportunity isn’t big enough to warrant continued investment in this way.” Krieger and Systrom wrote. The acquisition came a few months after they announced they would close the platform. Also, the acquisition closed on March 29.
Yahoo was one of the first to blend human and algorithmic news curating. The landscape of machine learning and personalisation has altered tremendously since then, and Artefact has innovated with best-in-class technology to adapt, said Yahoo News SVP and general manager Kat Downs Mulder. Artefact has become a cherished product, and we’re excited to extend that technology and further our objective of becoming the trusted reference to digital information and the best curator linking people to their favourite content.
We use AI to help users find outstanding stuff they care about. That possibility exists, and we couldn’t be more excited to see what we’ve produced live on Yahoo News, Systrom said. Yahoo adds the size to let the product achieve what we envisioned while maintaining that connecting people to credible news and information is as vital as ever.”
Why Yahoo buys Artefact for AI news
Yahoo’s acquisition of AI-powered news platform Artefact highlights the media industry’s growing reliance on AI. Yahoo needs innovative technologies to compete with the rise of digital content and demand for personalised news experiences.
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Yahoo’s news distribution may benefit from Artefacts AI capabilities by providing more personalised content. Artefacts technology may help Yahoo generate news stories that resonate with users by analysing user preferences, browsing behaviour, and interaction patterns, enhancing user happiness and retention.
The acquisition may also help Yahoo streamline content generation and editing efficiency. Yahoo’s journalists can focus on in-depth reporting and analysis by automating content tagging, summaries, and first drafts with AI.
Yahoo’s purchase of Artefact shows its dedication to media technology innovation. Yahoo wants to improve user engagement and efficiency by integrating AI-powered features into its news platform.
