Yahoo acquires Artifact news app from Instagram co-founders

Yahoo has acquired Artifact, a news aggregation and recommendation app developed by Instagram’s co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

The acquisition signals the end of Artifact’s independent operation, as Yahoo plans to integrate its AI personalization technology and other features into products like Yahoo News shortly.

The deal, finalized last week, includes Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger providing advisory support to Yahoo during the transition period.

Systrom expressed optimism about the potential of AI to enhance user experiences in discovering relevant content.

Artifact, launched in January of the previous year, garnered moderate attention for its effective discovery system and AI-powered features like news summaries.

However, despite efforts to improve its personalized news feed and incorporate social elements, such as profiles and comment voting, the app struggled to attract a substantial audience.

This acquisition mirrors Yahoo’s previous purchase of Summly, another news-summarizing app, over a decade ago.

Following the acquisition, Yahoo integrated Summly’s technology into other products after discontinuing the standalone app.