Yahoo Acquired Social AI App Artifact From Instagram's Founders Just After The App Was Almost Shut Down

Yahoo recently acquired Artifact, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven news aggregation and discovery platform. 

Founded in 2023 by Instagram Co-Founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Artifact quickly gained popularity, earning the title Everyday Essential App of the Year from the Google Play Store.

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Despite its early success, Artifact struggled to maintain its growth trajectory in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. In January, the founders announced their intention to shut down the company, citing insufficient market opportunities to justify further investment. This highlights both the volatility and lucrative nature of startups and venture capital. 

"We launched a year ago, and since then, we've been working tirelessly to build a great product. We have built something that a core group of users love, but we have concluded that the market opportunity isn't big enough to warrant continued investment in this way," Systrom said via a Medium Post. 

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Despite this setback, Yahoo stepped in to acquire Artifact shortly after the shutdown announcement. Under the new arrangement, Artifact will cease to operate as a standalone app. Instead, its proprietary AI-powered personalization technology will be integrated into Yahoo’s broader suite of services, including the Yahoo News app.

"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," 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."

With Artifact, Yahoo News will be able to provide a more personalized feed of news stories to its readers in addition to easy access to top news, link-sharing capabilities and tools to prevent clickbait proliferation.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. 

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Systrom and Krieger will assist Yahoo in an advisory capacity to facilitate technology integration. The duo is well-known for their previous collaboration in founding Instagram in 2010, which they sold to Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion in a stock and cash deal