Yahoo resurrects Artifact inside a new AI-powered News app

By wazup on June 14, 2024 Comments Closed / 66 views

After acquiring the technology behind the Artifact app, Yahoo is launching an AI-powered personalized news app of its own.

By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

three screenshots of Yahoo News app, firs showing topics to personalize, then news feed, then a Beyonce story with a button to summarize it. — a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Image: Yahoo

Artifact is dead, long live Yahoo’s version of Artifact. The architecture behind Artifact, the news aggregation app built by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, will live on inside the body of a brand-new Yahoo News app.

Available to download today on iOS and Android, the new Yahoo News app brings an AI-powered personalized news feed for users based on their interests, while a feature called Key Takeaways can give a bullet summary of a news article when a reader is feeling TL;DR.

Other features of the Yahoo News app include Top Stories, which picks up on trending stories for users to read and will soon include key takeaway summaries. You can block stories with undesired keywords, as well as filter out certain publishers to your preference. And just like Artifact, Yahoo News also lets you flag content like clickbaity headlines, then lets AI rewrite them to something better.

Yahoo purchased Artifact in April for an undisclosed amount, saving it from total demise. Artifact had sort of lost itself in the final stretch of its life after it had tried making it into a Twitter-like social media platform — although its original goal was to be like a “TikTok for Text.” Yahoo hasn’t said it’s bringing all of the social features of Artifact back, but the new app allows you to share article excerpts with your friends. It also has a gamified “streak” feature and badges you can show to others for being a heavy reader.

Yahoo is also taking some of what it’s building in the News app to the Yahoo News online homepage. Starting today, the website has a new layout that highlights top news, gives personalized recommendations, and shows trending topics. The new homepage experience is opt-in.