Social media has been buzzing with the news when Mike Krieger (one of the Instagram co-founders), announced a new AI-powered, text based news feed app called Artifact in his instagram post.
Wait, before you roll your eyes and say “”another social media app?”, bear with us a second. According the two co-founders of the Artifact app (who are also the co-founders of Instagram), this app is the Twitter Killer:
a personalized news feed driven by the latest in artificial intelligence, with AI that works on your own terms”
Mike Krieger, co-founder of Artifact
One of the co-founders, Kevin Systrom did not specifically mention Twitter, but you might be aware of the fact that lately Twitter is having a rough time with many issues like visibility, arguable free-speech implementations. Many people argue that Twitter itself is in control of what you see, contrary to what Kevin and Mark envisions for their new social media platform. Well we guess time will tell.
Currently the social media platform accepts phone numbers to place you in a waiting list at their website. you can already download the apps on Androind and iOS from the respective marketplaces. We’e heard that initial reaction from early users are quite positive, and we’re eagerly waiting to share everything that we have not shared before!
Artifact’s name comes from “”articles” and “facts”, a clear indication of what the app is trying to do. As every app, the users will ultimately decide how they’ll use the app and the general direction of where the app is going (remember Instagram initially being a photo-sharing app only with your friends?). Will it be a glorified Google Reader or a socially awkward text-based version of TikTok? Word is still out on that.
Currently the app homepage gives you curated articles from well-known outlets like New York Times, as well as niche topics from selected resources. The founders says that the algorithm will adjust itself over time to tailor itself to your liking (as you would expect from AI. Well not only from AI but from any app). Beta users are already testing other features like a Twitter timeline from your follow list and direct messaging system, so more news should surface in the following weeks about the user-experience.
Over the last year we have seen many “AI apps” that have used the terms somewhat generously, and the benefits of using artificial intelligence has yet to be seen, but we’re curious about the app and what it will bring!
