Yahoo Acquires Artifact AI News Platform From Instagram Founders

Yahoo Inc. is taking a step toward AI-powered news reporting by acquiring Artifact, an artificial intelligence news platform. The global media and tech company made the purchase after Instagram co-founders put the asset up for sale.

Yahoo bought Artifact from Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. According to Reuters, with the deal in place, the AI-driven news aggregation and discovery platform will stop operating as a standalone app and will be integrated across Yahoo, including its news app, in the coming months.

Artifact's Integration Into Yahoo

Yahoo confirmed on Tuesday, April 2, that it has acquired Artifact, which will soon be integrated into news and other web platforms. The deal shows how media start-ups struggle to grow their revenue while major tech firms continue to attract most of the advertising sales in the industry.

Artifact also confirmed facing difficulties through its previous blog post, which announced it would end operations of its app because "the market opportunity is not big enough to warrant continued investment in this way." In any case, by adding the AI news app to its portfolio, Yahoo can scale up its news operations and offer personalized content to readers through Artifact's AI-powered recommendations.

Other Acquisition Details

Yahoo and Artifact closed their acquisition on March 29, and the latter's co-founders will help with the transition. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger will be given advisory roles in the company to assist as Artifact is integrated across Yahoo's news and content platforms.

"Yahoo was one of the first to combine human and algorithmic curation of news. Since then, the landscape of machine learning and personalization has changed dramatically and Artifact has innovated with best-in-class technology to meet the moment," Yahoo News' senior vice president and general manager, Kat Downs Mulder, said in a press release. "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."

Photo by: Yahoo Press Release