After less than a year in operation, artificial intelligence news aggregation service Artifact appears to be unprofitable and will be shut down completely at the end of February.Artifact was launched at the end of February 2023 by Instagram co-founders Mike Kreiger and Kevin Systrom. The feature of this service is very interesting. It not only shows news to readers, but also edits the news feed based on likes.
Editing is a basic feature, but the service also offers AI summaries of articles. In addition, Artifact recently allowed users to use AI capabilities to rewrite articles published on the service.
"We built a product that our core user base loves, but we don't think the market opportunity is large enough to warrant continued investment in this way," Artifact CEO Kevin Systrom wrote on Medium on Friday night. "It's easy for startups to lose sight of this reality, but it's often in everyone's best interest to make tough decisions earlier."
The company is trimming the app before shutting it down completely. Going forward, the ability to add new comments and posts will be removed, reducing the amount of moderation manpower the company needs to provide in the short term.
Posters can still view existing posts on their personal homepage, and the core news browsing function will continue until the end of February 2024.
Artifact CEO Kevin Systrom shared news of the closure Friday night.