WASHINGTON, April 3 — Yahoo has acquired artificial intelligence-driven news aggregator app Artifact, the company announced on Tuesday.
While the financial details remain undisclosed, Artifact, created by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, will cease to operate as a standalone app.
Instead, its AI-powered personalisation technology will be integrated into Yahoo, including the Yahoo News app, over the next few months, reported German news agency (dpa).
Yahoo’s acquisition of Artifact closed on March 29, 2024. Artifact’s co-founders, chief executive Systrom and chief technology officer Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity during this transition.
Reportedly, Artifact’s remaining five employees have either gotten other jobs or are planning to take some time off.
“Yahoo was one of the first to combine human and algorithmic curation of news. Since then, the landscape of machine learning and personalisation has changed dramatically and Artifact has innovated with best-in-class technology to meet the moment,” said Kat Downs Mulder, senior vice-president and general manager of Yahoo News.
“Artifact has become a beloved product and we’re thrilled to be able to continue to grow that technology and further our mission of becoming the trusted guide to digital information and the best curator connecting people to the content that matters most to them.”
“We built an intuitive product experience that users love and has the opportunity to benefit millions of people. Yahoo brings the scale to help the product achieve what we envisioned while upholding the belief that connecting people to the trusted sources of news and information is as critical as ever,” said Systrom.
“AI has allowed us to give users a better experience discovering great content they care about. Yahoo recognises that opportunity, and we could not be more excited to see what we’ve built live on through Yahoo News.”
— Bernama
