Yahoo has finalized its acquisition of Artifact, a news aggregation and recommendation app created by the co-founders of Instagram. Following the acquisition, Artifact's standalone operation will cease, with its artificial intelligence (AI) personalization technology and other functionalities set to integrate into Yahoo News and related products in the coming months.
Although the financial specifics of the deal remain undisclosed, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the founders of Artifact, will transition into advisory roles for Yahoo during this period. Notably, Yahoo is also the parent company of Engadget.
Expressing enthusiasm about the acquisition, Kevin Systrom, Artifact's CEO, stated in a press release, "AI has enabled us to provide users with a superior experience in discovering relevant content. Yahoo recognizes this potential, and we are thrilled to see our creation continue to thrive through Yahoo News."
Since its launch in January last year, Artifact has garnered attention for its robust story discovery system. Leveraging AI technology, the app refined its personalized news feed over time and incorporated features such as news summaries. Despite efforts to enhance user engagement with social features like user profiles and comment voting, Artifact struggled to achieve the scale seen by Instagram, leading Systrom and Krieger to announce its closure in January. Nonetheless, they continued managing its operations until its eventual sale.
Interestingly, this acquisition echoes Yahoo's previous acquisition of Summly over a decade ago, which also focused on AI-powered news summarization. After the acquisition, Summly was integrated into other Yahoo products following the shutdown of its standalone operation.
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