Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger brought a big change when they launched Instagram. Instagram changed the way social media functions. It has been a huge hit. It will also change how things like marketing and advertising work. This is like a paradigm shift.
So now, here is something interesting for Instagram fans. Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger came up with a news app called Artifact. Artifact is an acronym for Articles, Facts, and Artificial Intelligence. It is a personalized news app. It has a touch of Instagram in it. But unlike Instagram, it has more to do with news than photos. The app runs by AI.
What is AI in relation to social media?
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Artificial Intelligence is a set of technologies that can perform advanced functions. These are the ability to see, understand, and analyze data and make recommendations. It is like the base of modern computing. AI has the potential to alter how brands market on social media platforms. It has the power to what you see on social media. It is a technology that social media marketers use to get great results. Social media marketing is one of the areas where marketers can transform performance by using artificial intelligence. Your smartphone also has AI. Amazon and Netflix also use AI. Gmail also uses AI.
AI on social media helps you serve content. It gives you recommendations, and suggestions and serves you posts based on your interests and preferences.
The use of AI to recommend content has given rise to mental health concerns. TikTok is making users available eating disorder content. People have this habit of compulsively scrolling through their feeds. This is known as doomscrolling.
Availability of the app
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The app has not yet been made available but there is a waitlist where you can sign in. the users will get an invite link when it gets ready. The app is currently in private beta. Artifact is a newsreader app. It uses AI to personalize the experience for the user. There are some social features like you can discuss news articles with friends. The app is for both Android and iOS. The app has come at a time when it is like the reigning of social media.
Features of Artifact
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Artifact will first show a basic selection of news stories. But the news will also become in agreement with the user’s interest areas. Once a user taps on a particular news article, the app will show similar news articles. This is because it will become aligned with the user’s reading interests. There will be articles from big publishers as well as smaller ones. There are features like comment controls, news feeds, and message inboxes. So, you can see those articles separately that are posted by people you follow. There will be a message inbox where you can discuss news privately.
Similarities with other apps
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It has many similarities to apps like Flipboard, Pocket, SmartNews, and NewsBreak. It can get competition from Apple News and Google News. But the founders believe that the recent advancements in machine learning can give Artifact some advantage.
Artifact is still being developed. It is not yet monetized. The coming up of Artifact shows that AI will play a major role in how people see content on social media apps. This app is like a TikTok for text. It is also like Google Reader. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have used AI to recommend posts, stories, and photos to users. So, Artifact would have to do something new to say that it is different from these two.
It has similarities with one of Twitter’s news discussions. Artifact will also compete with Meta. Artifact is like a text version of TikTok. It is like a mobile version of Google Reader. It is working on a feature like TikTok’s “For You” page.
The idea behind Artifact
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The idea behind Artifact is to provide users with high-quality news and information. They are using AI to improve user experience. The Artifact would have publishers who give authentic news and information and not those who are not authentic. The machine-learning systems will also inform the users how long they are spending time on reading about different subjects. It is opposed to just generating the most clicks and comments.
Team of Artifact
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Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are themselves funding Artifact. There is a team of 7 people with Robby Stein, who was a top product executive at Instagram previously. They will also have investors in their company. Artifact is majorly based on text. The founders feel that the app will get a bigger audience. The founders were discussing the idea a few years ago and now it is the Artifact. Systrom was once uncertain about this idea of machine learning systems and social media recommendations. But the experience of Instagram changed him and made him believe in it. He now believes that when machine learning is used to improve the consumer experience, it is a lot quicker.
What led to Artifact?
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The changes that led the founders were that there was a big surge in consumer technology, how that thing could be connected to social technology, and how a product could be made to solve the problem.
The change that led to the making of Artifact was the transformer. This was invented by Google in 2017. It had a mechanism to understand language that used lesser inputs than were required before. The transformer led machine-learning systems to improve. This also led to the release of ChatGPT and the attendant rise in interest in AI. It also created new possibilities. At first, social networks showed you things that your friends thought were interesting. But then, they showed you things based on the people you followed no matter if you were friends with them or not. TikTok shows content based on algorithmic predictions. It doesn’t matter who your friends are or who you follow. Now, Artifact is also an effort in the same direction but for text.
Artifact will really work on serving readers with good-quality news and information. It is a good venture. And it will prove helpful.
By Bhawna